Volitan Lionfish Not Eating

[Alec]

Hi, sorry if this question is repetitive to some of you. I've seen the posts about others lions, but my situation is different from theirs. I have a Volitan lion who is a picky eater. He refuses to eat anything dead or frozen, only live things. I mainly feed him live fish/shrimp, but 2 weeks ago I saw him throw up all the fish he ate (and the picasso trigger ate the regurgitated fish) and he hasn't eaten since. It's in a 55 gallon aquarium and shares the tank with a Miniatus Grouper, a Picasso Triggerfish and a Moray Eel. The Eel, Trigger and Grouper are still eating all the time, but when I drop the goldfish in for my lion, he never eats them. Some even swim up and lay on his fins. I've even seen him protect them from the eel, trigger and grouper before! But he never eats them! I don't know what to do. If you guys could help me out it'd be greatly appreciated.

 

[Smitty]

How long has it been since he's eaten anything? Sometimes they may take as few days off from eating. Also, as a suggestion, try soaking some of his frozen food in garlic extract. That should entice him to eat hopefully.
What type of filtration do you have on that tank, cause that's a lot of big fish in that size tank, which is probably stressing him out, and causing him not to eat.

 

[little_fish]

I suspect he is stressed because he is in a tank that is too small for him, which a bunch of other stressed out fish because the tank is too small. Stressed fish dont eat

Also if you have been feeding him goldfish his whole life he could be malnourished. Freshwater fish have different proteins, fatty acids etc from saltwater fish, and the lion has evolved to survive of those different components.

There are several people on here who have trained their lions to eat frozen, hopefully they will chime in on how they did it.

But in the mean time, you really should look for a bigger tank for your fish. I would go with a 125 at minimum. The grouper and trigger will eventually need tanks in the 8 foot range.

 

[jcegt87]

very correct little fishie ,goldfish are the fast food of fish they are the most nasty fish to feed a lionfish, its basically like feeding him a glob of fat nothing nutritious ,

you should try and train your lion to eat frozen its not an easy task but its also not an impossible one, you say he refuses to eat dead or frozen well hes goinna keep refusing if you give up and give him live food, i took my dwarf 10 days of starvation but hes started eating frozen and i havent given him any more live foods, i feed him frozen krill and silversides .

 

[vrod2169]

Have not had a lion in many years but when I did I tried to trick him into taking silverside. Take a thread and tie to the fish and help him "swim" in front of the lion. If he's hungry he should take it as long as thr trigger and grouper are already stuffed of course! Agree with LF on the nutrition value of the goodfish! Might be good at first maybe to get to eat but need to switch to saltwater meal for them. Good luck!

 

[Alec]

Hi everyone, I fed them last night, and he flared up in color and ate 2 goldfish and has not regurgitated them! :D Everything is back to normal!!

 

[jcegt87]

thats very good hes eating but you may wanna try and wean him off live food especially goldfish

 

[sps]

If you can train him on fully thawed krill, that would be a good idea also. That is what I used to train mine. Also, fresh scallops and shrimp is a great food for them.

 

[Alec]

Sounds good, but yeah it's hard with my lion. He HATES anything that isn't alive and will not touch it, he even rarely goes after the live ghost shrimp I put in there. So getting him off his goldfish addiction may be tough, but I'll see what I can do with your ideas and see how they work for me!

 

[jcegt87]

Sounds good, but yeah it's hard with my lion. He HATES anything that isn't alive and will not touch it, he even rarely goes after the live ghost shrimp I put in there. So getting him off his goldfish addiction may be tough, but I'll see what I can do with your ideas and see how they work for me!

the big thing that will make it work is if YOU dont give up on training him, you have to stick to it , like i said before with mine it took 10 days , during those days he was stubborn but i put my foot down until he ate frozen foods.

you have to make it as realistic as possible dont chase him with the food , remember lions are opportunistic and predators, they like to stalk their prey , not have their prey chasing him to make him eat it lol,

you could try garlic extract to entice him to eat , iu myself never had to do that but may help

just be patient and DONT feed him anymore live foods during or after its weaned

 

[Alec]

the big thing that will make it work is if YOU dont give up on training him, you have to stick to it , like i said before with mine it took 10 days , during those days he was stubborn but i put my foot down until he ate frozen foods.

you have to make it as realistic as possible dont chase him with the food , remember lions are opportunistic and predators, they like to stalk their prey , not have their prey chasing him to make him eat it lol,

you could try garlic extract to entice him to eat , iu myself never had to do that but may help

just be patient and DONT feed him anymore live foods during or after its weaned

I'll see if it will work at all. Problem is everytime I try and put a piece of frozen fish in the tank either the grouper, trigger or eel will eat it and he'll get nothing. Even with a feeding stick

 

[Mr.Diggler]

Maybe section off your tank with a piece of plexiglass that has been drilled full of holes. That may give you the opportunity to concentrate on your lion without any outside interference.

 

[Alec]

Maybe section off your tank with a piece of plexiglass that has been drilled full of holes. That may give you the opportunity to concentrate on your lion without any outside interference.

And I can take that out of the tank when it's done? Because I don't want to leave it in there you know?