Weaning my Lionfish off live food

pch356

pch356

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Hi,

I recently became the proud owner of a Spot-finned Lion fish (Pterois antennata). :thumbup:
The LFS I bought it from only fed it live brineshrimp, so I am trying to wean the spoilt brat off eating life food only.

I will still add live food (brineshrimp) to it's diet as a snack, but would be glad if it will take a bite from the frozen brinshrimp, blood worm, chopped hake etc that I feed the other tank inhabitants. I have a FOWL setup, so I can still pick and choose to a certain extent as to what I want to feed my fish.

Feeding the Lion fish currently is a process. First of all you have to get the attention of the other fish away from the munchies being fed to the Lion Fish by feeding them in one side of the tank. Then I take my home made tool (a funnel connected to a piece of pipe) and hold it so the the pipe is close to the Lion. I then pour the live brineshrimp down the funnel and hopefully the Lion will get a bite or three before the other realises what is going on. I am just worried that he does not get enough to eat at the moment.

Any ideas, other than feeding it with a golden teaspoon ? ;)
 
Thanks Warr, will study that info sheet and hopefully return in the near future with my own success story ......:thumbup:
 
pch356 said:
Thanks Warr, will study that info sheet and hopefully return in the near future with my own success story ......:thumbup:
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Good Luck, and remember he will eat anything that that can fit in his mouth. (inverts included) They also have huge appetites and can starve very easily.
 
how big is the lion dude?
 
Warr7207 said:
Good Luck, and remember he will eat anything that that can fit in his mouth. (inverts included) They also have huge appetites and can starve very easily.
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Luckily I do not have something that small in my tank at the moment, but yes, that is I am afraid of not feeding the brat properly. I see in that fact sheet feeding is reduced to 3 feedings/week - if fed properly. Currently I feed twice a day and hope that he gets enough to eat.
 
pch356 said:
Luckily I do not have something that small in my tank at the moment, but yes, that is I am afraid of not feeding the brat properly. I see in that fact sheet feeding is reduced to 3 feedings/week - if fed properly. Currently I feed twice a day and hope that he gets enough to eat.
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On brine probably not, need to get bigger feeds.
 
Mekaeel said:
cool man.use to keep these guys and managed to get them to take hake.by the way mines were locally caught ones
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I took a chance with a piece of hake earlier this evening and dragged close to and away from him with my tongs - at a stage he seemed very interested but was to shy to come close, so hopefully I caught his attention enough for him to try and grab it soon.
 
pch356 said:
I took a chance with a piece of hake earlier this evening and dragged close to and away from him with my tongs - at a stage he seemed very interested but was to shy to come close, so hopefully I caught his attention enough for him to try and grab it soon.
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That's the method, keep going at it and he will eventually take. May have to buy him a couple of moolies if he doesn't take to the prepared food in the first week
 
Warr7207 said:
That's the method, keep going at it and he will eventually take. May have to buy him a couple of moolies if he doesn't take to the prepared food in the first week
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I have three mollies in the tank for still from my start up crew. One spawned again about two weeks ago and I just left the babies in the tank. The survivors are a proper bite now, but it seems that he still did not discover them or they are to quick for him. But I will keep on trying with the hake as well.
 
pch356 said:
I have three mollies in the tank for still from my start up crew. One spawned again about two weeks ago and I just left the babies in the tank. The survivors are a proper bite now, but it seems that he still did not discover them or they are to quick for him. But I will keep on trying with the hake as well.
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Just watch him, but most Lions are hardly and should take to prepared food. If he is not eating the moolies then he may still be acclimatising to the new surroundings or he just not hungry.
 
Mekaeel said:
all i did was chucked in a small piece of hake,and these guys just darted for it...as i was sick of catching baby blacktails to feed them
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I also tried dropping the hake in front of the powerhead spout to cause it to wriggle around while floating in the tank. That did not seemed to interest the little bugger at all... but again tonight was only my first try....

How big was the pieces of hake that you fed them - the one I experimented with was about 0.5 X 1cm sliced thinly.
 
Warr7207 said:
Just watch him, but most Lions are hardly and should take to prepared food. If he is not eating the moolies then he may still be acclimatising to the new surroundings or he just not hungry.
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Yes, maybe I am just overstressed about nothing - he's been in there for about 5 days no, so I'll just watch him closely. :slayer:
 
pch356 said:
I also tried dropping the hake in front of the powerhead spout to cause it to wriggle around while floating in the tank. That did not seemed to interest the little bugger at all... but again tonight was only my first try....

How big was the pieces of hake that you fed them - the one I experimented with was about 0.5 X 1cm sliced thinly.
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ok my 3 lion fish were around the length of +-10cm.and the hake i fed mustve been around a 1 cm box
 
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