Over feeding Lion & weaning to dried food

[mling]

After losing my first attempt at raising a Lion, after just 2 days, it appears that my current acquisition is going to make it because it is feeding well. It is a Fuzzy Dwarf that is about 3 inches. It is taking frozen krill and live ghost shrimp. I am giving it 2 a day and it gobbles it up with out much hesitation. It is really cool to see it hunt the ghost shrimp.

My question now is how do you know when you are over feeding a Lion ? Should it only be fed every other day ? How many shrimp or krill should you give a 3 inch Lion everyday ?

We are spoiling it now hoping to make it’s adjustment to tank live easier. I read that Lion can be weed to take dried food. I hope to that someday so that it can be fed by an automatic feed when we are away. When should I stop the frozen krill and live shrimp to try wean it to dried food with out stressing it out ? Would a month in this new environment be enough ?

 

[Anonymous]

I have read in numerous sources about fatty liver disease in captive reef fish. I believe there is a great chapter in Scott Michaels book, or maybe it is Jay Hemdals?

Basically, because they are such slow movers and expend such little energy in our tanks, they don't need as much food. I feed mine every other day. Our local public aquariums curator only feeds twice a week.

I also try to feed less fat containing food. Mine will eat squid, so I add that to their mix.

I am not a fan of flake food. I have not found one that seemed to be adequate when I've read the labels for ingredients.

You might consider gut loading the ghost shrimp if you feel he needs live food. These fw foods are somewhat lacking for SW fish, IMO.

 

[cindre2000]

If you feed the lion "too much" water quality goes down (unless your filtration can handle it), and the lion grows quicker. If you feed it less, it will grow slower. If you feed it too little it gets a sunken belly.

I fed mine two to three times a week until it would eat no more.

As for switching it over to dry food. First you stop giving it live ghost fish- reserve them for a treat; keep him on a variety of fresh seafood. Then work your lion up to freeze dried foods- such as freeze dried krill. Then you might try some sort of pellet...

What is in your tank? Could you just dump a whole bunch of shore shrimp in the tank and let the lion hunt them for a week or more?

 

[mling]

I don't think I can dump the shrimp in the tank because my Lion will probably eat them all.

I only have a small, 2", Racoon as the other fish in the tank.

 

[cindre2000]

Lions will not gorge themselves to death. The idea is you feed him really good, until he ignores the food you put in. Then you dump in all the shrimp. He will slowly eat them as he gets hungry. As long as they are not tiny shrimp compared to him, he should stay sated for a good period of time.

My lion probably would have eaten 3-4 shore shrimp in a sitting. So if I put in 20, I could assume that he should be fed for at least 12 days, fat and happy. You probably want to see how many shore shrimp it will take to fill up your lion first.