Fu Manchu lionfish and eating

chalmies19832002 · 06-06-2008, 08:09 PM

I have a fu man lion and he has been in the tank for about about a week. The first few times I feed hime with feeder guppies and he loved them but it is very difficult to feed those because of course they cant live long. I have been trying to feed him krill and he wont take it. I really need some help I am worried he is hungry.

schackmel · 06-06-2008, 08:59 PM

I had a couple of lions, on fuzzy dwarf (AKA Killer) and a volitan lionfish. The volitan was easy to switch over to krill, but Killer was a pain to switch, even with both in the same tank.
Try getting some ghost shrimp and gut load them with some omega 3 vitamin or some really good source before you feed them. Then add a touch of garlic in the water (I used to place them in a little tupperwear bowl, feed them, add a few drops of the AminoOmega by Brightwell Aquatics with some brine shrimp with spirulena and let the shrimp eat that. Then add a couple drops of garlic in there so the shrimp has a nasty little smell. I then made the mistake of pouring the solution into my water and the aminomega is horrible at clouding water, so try to fish out the ghost shrimp and add them to the tank. Ghost shrimp last longer in salt then feeder guppies. Plus my lions like it better
Feeder guppies are cheaper then shrimp....so what you could do is drip the guppies to acclimate them to saltwater. Do this very slow though, you will loose many during this process. Also you probably will want to consider starting a feeder tank. Guppies multiply fast in salt. If you do start a feeder tank, get some black and marble mollies and put them in your feeder tank, along with feeder guppies, then switch the tank to salt....you will have ton of babies soon. Trust me in the long run you will be thankful you have a feedertank, buying live all the time is a pain, plus it is expensive
To get them to eat frozen, it just takes lots of time. Make sure you have a feeder stick and soak the food in a lot of garlic. Place the food in the water and make it look like it is swimming. Watch the behavior of the lion when he eats live and see how he goes after the food, then kind of mimic how the food goes. Like I said, the one fish was a breeze, I could drop it in) the other took several months before he would eat frozen.
Do not feed goldfish ever. They can not digest them and can kill them. There skulls can block the gut or something like that.
Also, do not get stung! It hurts like ....... I went to get Killer out of my moms tank and put it in mine and that thing got behind a pump and I did not see it and it got me on 2 fingers on the cuticles, I was vomiting, my arm was numb, it was throbbing, and it just plain hurt. Take benadryl and run under as hot of water as possible for as long as possible. That is what the LFS said to do when we called. Best thing is to buy some of those fish gloves and watch out. Those fish, esp Fu Man Chu can blend into rock work very well. They usually will swim away from you when you put your arm in the tank, just dont push it.

schackmel · 06-06-2008, 09:05 PM

I forgot, one other thing, lions dont eat every day. If you got yours about a week ago, and he has ate a couple times already, then you are doing pretty good. I fed mine about every 2-3 days.

Good luck

chalmies19832002 · 06-06-2008, 09:32 PM

thanks, i appreciate it

Brandon1023 · 06-06-2008, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schackmel

I forgot, one other thing, lions dont eat every day. If you got yours about a week ago, and he has ate a couple times already, then you are doing pretty good. I fed mine about every 2-3 days.

Good luck

My Fuzzy is quite the opposite. He's a pig and will eat 2 or 3 feeders PER DAY

BillyD · 06-06-2008, 10:57 PM

I wouldnt feed the lions guppies. as you should not feed them freshwater fish. every now and again is probably ok. but again they can contract some diseases and such, its jut not healthy for them.

my lion wasnt eatting when i first got him eather, what i did was got some silver sides and soaked them in garlic about 30min. then dangled them to get their attention. and dropped them to the tank. it wasnt instant. they sniffed it a little . but eventually they ate them, it got quicker and quicker every day. now i can just walk up to the tank and they are expecting foods. my black volitan swims up to the glass every time i walk up there. and he's now on frozen foods and is happy and healthy.

hope that helps. good luck..

nunch · 06-07-2008, 05:30 AM

i used to feed my volitan either lance or silversides (frozen) everyday. i had to start off target feeding it for the first couple weeks then he started going after the food as soon as i dropped it in.

evojoe67 · 06-07-2008, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chalmies19832002

I have a fu man lion and he has been in the tank for about about a week. The first few times I feed hime with feeder guppies and he loved them but it is very difficult to feed those because of course they cant live long. I have been trying to feed him krill and he wont take it. I really need some help I am worried he is hungry.

i've got a fu man, and volitans, in my 96.
i started them on krill, from the beginning. i did'nt want to mess with the live food.
i used tongs to drop the krill in front of his face. they will have a hard time competing for food.they are not real swimmers.
i've got mine eating the frozen cubes, now.
try the tongs, and if i were you, i'd get away from the live food. just my opinion.

chalmies19832002 · 06-07-2008, 06:17 PM

Can someone tell me what the garlic does to the fish that makes them want to eat it