I recently bought a dwarf lionfish. It's a tiny little guy in my 220. What is you experience with feeding these? I feed a lot of frozen food. 16 cubes throughout the day. I also feed live blackworms daily. I never see this guy eat. Are you all hand feeding your dwarf lionfish? I'm looking for experiences you've had with them. Thanks!
Dwarf Lionfish
- Thread starter FoxyFace
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Will Milberger
Aggie Aquarist
Lionfish eat only live food in my experience. You need to get some of those 10 cent goldfish from the LFS.
Crabs McJones
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Generally a long pair of tongs. Dont put your hand by it or it may end badly lol. Lionfish can be tricky as they usually prefer to eat live food. You can try ghost shrimp or feeder goldfish from your local fish store if he won't eat frozen.
Vincent100
Valuable Member
I had a dwarf that sadly jumped out of my tank
He would only eat live at the beginning but I started to trick him
Id buy bags of live baby shrimp and suck them up into a turkey baster
At night when all the other fish were asleep and he was out doing he's thing Id blown the shrimp at him and he'd feed
It got to a point of him knowing that the food came from the turkey baster so as soon as it went into the tank he'd swim straight up to it waiting for food, well after awhile I'd feed frozen foods instead of the live and he started to take them ....maybe by mistake at first but he soon got used to it and fed no problem .............intill he went carpet surfing
He would only eat live at the beginning but I started to trick him
Id buy bags of live baby shrimp and suck them up into a turkey baster
At night when all the other fish were asleep and he was out doing he's thing Id blown the shrimp at him and he'd feed
It got to a point of him knowing that the food came from the turkey baster so as soon as it went into the tank he'd swim straight up to it waiting for food, well after awhile I'd feed frozen foods instead of the live and he started to take them ....maybe by mistake at first but he soon got used to it and fed no problem .............intill he went carpet surfing
BantyRooster97
Valuable Member
A lot will learn to eat shrimp or krill, over time. To begin with feed him ghost shrimp or the very small rosy red gold fish you can buy at any petsmart or petco.
I bought 50 feeder guppies today and put them all in the tank. I didn’t see him eat one of them. My trigger looks like it’s going to explode right now and I didn’t know my wrasses would eat them as well. I’ll try again.
Claus84
Active Member
I would persevere getting him transitioned to frozen, feshwater feeders aren't good long term for marine fish. I had a fuzzy dwarf years ago, started him on ghost shrimp and transitioned him to frozen lance fish within a few weeks, really wasn't that hard, not saying it will bw that easy for you but def worth a try.
I waved them around with feeding tongs to get him interested
edit: i did all this in QT which probably made it a bit easier
I waved them around with feeding tongs to get him interested
edit: i did all this in QT which probably made it a bit easier
Last edited:
These guys almost always come in eating live only. It would have been best to set him up in an observation tank alone and work on his eating routine. Initially feeding live ghost shrimp while trying to convert to dead food. If you don't pull him out, fatten him and settle him in with live food, he'll likely starve to death. Likely keeping one a 220 you'll need to have him eating dead food very well, target feeding him chunks of meaty food, and having a routine response to your feeding methods before reintroducing him. There's never a guarantee he'll take to dead food easily, or at all; trying to train him to dead food in a 220 with room mates may be close to impossible.
Start with live ghost shrimp, size appropriate of course. You said he was tiny so you might have to really hunt for tiny ghost shrimp. If there's an lfs that gets molly babies turned in or even have them in their tanks, that's a good food as well. Mollies bred so easily a lfs that has a huge freshwater customer base may have some. If you didn't do alot research before getting this guy, you might find his feeding requirements tricky.
What species are we talking about... fuzzy, zebra, other?
I agree that it would be best to isolate the lion, get it to feed (usually guppy or ghost shrimp), then wean it over to frozen shrimp before adding to the display.
It's good that it's eating now, but guppies aren't a great long-term diet for lions. Hopefully it will learn the ropes.
I agree that it would be best to isolate the lion, get it to feed (usually guppy or ghost shrimp), then wean it over to frozen shrimp before adding to the display.
It's good that it's eating now, but guppies aren't a great long-term diet for lions. Hopefully it will learn the ropes.
It's funny, what do you think they will eat in the wild. People don't realize that really "all fish are predators".
My lions get a live diet of ghosties regularly and mollies about once a month. If you could get size appropriate mollies, it would be a better choice than guppies although guppies are fine occasionally also. If you were going to continue feeding live, setting up a container to gut load ghosties would be great. Dwarf lions seem to live longer in captivity, and be more vibrant and active when regularly offered live foods.
My son has a tank full of ghost shrimp. I take some of those and pop them in the tank as well. It’s so incredibly hard to get those past the other fish. Between my blue throat trigger and bird nose wrasse, they make short work of the ghost shrimp.
SashimiTurtle
Turtle
I put some live ghosties in my tank for my dwarf moray that has become really picky recently refusing everything I've offered that he used to eat. The couple fairy wrasse I have exploded with excitement the instant I put them in the tank and started swimming around like torpedoes attacking the ghosties. They were way too big for bite size, but that didn't stop them from attacking.
Its neat to see the reaction that live food creates. Oh yea, the moray ate quite a few as well.
Its neat to see the reaction that live food creates. Oh yea, the moray ate quite a few as well.
I was wondering how your eel was doing. Try using the tongs holding the live ghosties, then switch it out with the other foods you use to feed, he might then start taking the other food again.
