Lionfish Feeding Tips (mine is STUBBORN)

Hey guys, I need some feeding tips on how to feed my lionfish. I bought a variety of food for my lionfish: krills, live fish, pellets, brine shrimps, mysis.
But, the guy won't eat anything but live fish. I tried starving him for a few days and it took him about an HOUR or maybe more to eat ONE tiny freeze dried krill. He gets scared when I use the feeding stick to try to feed him silversides or krills, so what should I do? He's really stubborn and I hate having to fish out all the food I put in that he won't eat. Please advise! Thanks

 

Mine did this also. I got some live feeders and it ate them(just reg fresh water goldfish) they live for about 20-30 min so its good ammount of time for the lion to see it and attack it. Then I miced to cooked frozen shrimp you get at the grocery store and now it eats any frozen food I throw at it.

 

alright, I will try your method! Thanks for the advice, lets see if he eats...

 

one method I used to wean Arrowana from live feeders to frozen and fresh dead foods
was a lenght of fishing line loosely tied around the food stuff

jigged much like a fishing lure can tempt a strike

next stage was to hover by tank so that fish was expecting to be fed and then using a bit of force throwing the food in , the movement created tricked the fish into believing it was a live offering and it pounced on it before it hit the tank floor

Steve

 

I have a question. keeping a lion fish in a reef tank, dose it posses any issues other then looking out for him when you are rearranging the tank and smaller fish ?

 

@ Steve: Hey Steve, that sounds like a pretty good idea. I'll be heading to the fishing store right now then. Thanks!

@ Rawdogz: Hey Rawdogs, I used to have a reef tank, but it was too difficult to maintain with all the different types of fishes I had (non-reef safe), so I switched to FOWLR. I got my lionfish after switching to FOWLR, so I'm not sure how he would do in a reef tank. I have heard lionfishes are fine in reef tanks. They will eat your shrimps/inverts and little fishes (depends on how well you feed the guy), but other than that, they are typically considered reef safe.

 

I noticed in you signature that you have a trigger and lionfish. Are they both in the same tank? If so then one will have to be removed. I have lost a few triggers and lions because they will strike at each other. Trigger will nip at the spines on the lions back which will cause the lion to defend itself by stabbing the trigger. Sometimes the trigger would go for the eye, which resulted in the loss of both my Picasso ans Volitan.

Sorry, didn't mean to thread jack and go off subject. Just don't want someone else to repeat my mistake.

 

Hey 07FocusST, I've heard that before, but the thing is, I got a less aggressive trigger, I have the black hawaiian trigger and he seems to be very shy and peaceful. I think it should be alright for now. If they start fighting or show signs of aggression, I will for sure remove one of them. Thanks for the advice though, I will keep a closer eye on them now!

 

not true actually, I have 2 triggers (bursa and humu) and they live with my lionfish peacefully

 

as for feeding...my lion will eat anything i give him...he gets a treat of live fish about once a week...otherwise he eats frozen shrimp (2-3), usually every other day...i trained him to eat from a shishkabob stick..lol