Converting Lionfish from Live to Frozen Food

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I've seen this here before but I didn't consider keeping a lion then. Is there any best way to do this? The LFS has a gorgeous red lion (been there a couple months so he/she HAS to be fairly healthy) that the wife and I decided would look really cool in our 55 gallon with black sand and black background. He's been eating guppies, but I want to switch to frozen. What's best food and what's the best way to convert? I've read that tying a line to it and wiggling the frozen food like a lure can work. Any other suggestions?

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My drug habit cost less, but reef colors are better!

 

[Anonymous]

My best luck weaning lionfish has come with frozen krill. I used to see silversides recommended all the time for this, but I have found krill to work better in my experience. Lions really seem to love it.

I'd try and buy a proper fish feeder from a store if possible. They sell transparent poles with a blunt skewer on the end that works great. Otherwise use a big chopstick or long BBQ skewer and blunt it off so the lion wont scratch himself. Leave the food on the end of it and put it in the tank somewhere.

Lions want to hunt their food at first, so you need to shake your krill so it looks alive. Krill is really good for this since they have lots of legs and feelers and end up with a nice motion. You are going to have to let the lion discover the food, since if you put it right up into his face he wont be interested in it. You may need to tease him a bit the first time so he is convinced it is really alive.

Once he takes the first one you're all set. He will get used to feeding like this in only a few feedings. Be sure that anything you feed him is fully thawed, though. Food that's still frozen has been known to scratch a lions throat, and they wont always recover from that.

All in all I had problems getting lions to eat when I used silversides, and when I went to Krill it was extremely easy.

 

[Anonymous]

You dont even have to have frozen krill, i fed one freeze dried krill for a long time (Live fish every once in awhile)and he finaly got so big i traded him in.He would even take the food out of my hand.(which i dont recommend doing)I had a lion a panther grouper and a moray til they outgrew the tank they were in.

 

[Anonymous]

I've had luck using large krill also, I would wait a good week before feeding him and then give the krill a shot. They don't always take it but eventually most will.

 

[Anonymous]

I had problems training my lion to take frozen food - I tried silversides (baby and adult), krill, squid, etc. The only thing that worked was live ghost shrimp (most of which would be eaten by my trigger). Once the lion was eating the ghost shrmp, I switched over to frozen grass shrimp. I believe the grass shrimp worked because of its similarity to the ghost shrimp. Unfortunately, I am not sure if anyone carries frozen grass shrimp anymore. Today, 1.5 years later, my lion will eat anything I throw in front of him. Good luck.

ps. Beware of a lion that has been feeding on guppies for a while. I have read that feeding fresh water fish can lead to a number of illnesses.

 

[Anonymous]

No matter what you train him on, Don't feed him exclusivly krill. Mix it up a bit. Krill, silversides, squid, cockle,etc. And only feed him 3 times a week. Eventually they will even accept formula cubes.

 

[Anonymous]

When I owned my pet shop, I made sure that all of my lions were on frozen food before I sold them. This method worked everytime, usually within a week.

Lionfish are smart. If you bring your feeder fish to the tank in a net they will learn to recognize that net as "dinner is coming!!". Always put the live fish in the tank at one particular corner. Eventually when the lion sees you coming with the net he'll go to that corner waiting for you to dump a fish in his mouth. Once he's doing that, put frozen food in the net and dump it in the corner. BAM! He'll hit it before he even realizes it's not alive!!

Good luck- and remember to vary the diet as much as possible!!

 

[Anonymous]

hi
i just got a new lion a couple weeks ago. right now he is on guppies i have tried the stick method no luck there .i have been using a turkey baster to feed my eel and for the last couple times i have noticed that the lionfish is following the turkey baster around so i took a piece of krill and shot out of the baster at him and he took and almost took a grab at it. yesterday
i was feeding guppies out of the turkey baster. my hope is that the feeding response will become automatic and he will eat some krill that way.i hope this info helps you at least you might have a alternitive if all else fails.

Ashley