Feeding Dwarf Lionfish

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

My son just purchased about a two inch Dwarf lionfish. LFS showed us that it ate frozen mysis and did so. The lion didn't eat till the fourth day of buying it. I'm currently feeding it frozen mysis with Selcon every other feeding. After reading up on the fish, many say that they the easier variety to ween to frozen. My question is, can I feed both frozen and live? Threads I've read up on are either frozen only or live only diet. I want to feed it live (ghost shrimp or mollies) for hunting purposes and for treats. I don't want it to become more biased to live food. If it's ok, is there other live feeders I can provide besides ghost shrimp and mollies? The DLF is currently about two inches. Thanks in advance

James M · Apr 30, 2019

You can do both but don’t do mollies. Keep it to ghosts shrimp

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

James M said:
You can do both but don’t do mollies. Keep it to ghosts shrimp

Oh ok. I've also read that they gut load them before feeding. Is it like feeding them reef roids before the lion eats it?

BadFish619 · Apr 30, 2019

I feed ghost shrimp and guppies. I wish he'd eat frozen but won't. I had to set up a separate 5 gallon tank to keep the feeders! U could try to have him eat both but he might become picky. Also mysis will be too small pretty quickly. He'll want something bigger

James M · Apr 30, 2019

BadPanda said:
Oh ok. I've also read that they gut load them before feeding. Is it like feeding them reef roids before the lion eats it?

Feed the ghost flakes and pellets

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

BadFish619 said:
I feed ghost shrimp and guppies. I wish he'd eat frozen but won't. I had to set up a separate 5 gallon tank to keep the feeders! U could try to have him eat both but he might become picky. Also mysis will be too small pretty quickly. He'll want something bigger

I was thinking of trying out some clams or scallops and see if it'll eat it. When I feed my tank. I turn all flows off and just left him with a couple of pieces next to him. Four days later, he finally took it.

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

James M said:
Feed the ghost flakes and pellets

I'll try that after checkin out what other frozen items he'll take.

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

Thanks a lot guys for the heads up.

JumboShrimp · Apr 30, 2019

Any updates on how he’s eating?

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

Here he is BTW

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

JumboShrimp said:
Any updates on how he’s eating?

He's eating frozen fine. Just finished eating earlier. I was wondering if introducing live feed would make the lion not eat frozen again

JumboShrimp · Apr 30, 2019

Very beautiful. I have no experience with lion fish, but I can appreciate your hesitancy in going backwards— i.e., giving your fish any reason to become fussy toward frozen food at this stage of the game. If he needs a ‘treat’ every now and then, or something larger, don’t people give lion fish freeze dried krill? Just a thought. Best wishes!

Oshengems · Apr 30, 2019

After almost 6 months my fuzzy reverted to live only for smh, I was feeding chunks of shrimp, cut up silversides and frozen krill, now ghost shrimps only, I get so mad he acts like the chunks of frozen are too big for his mouth he would offer but not gulp and swim away then I add a ghost shrimp probably twice as big as the frozen chunks and gulps it up one bite mouth wide open

JumboShrimp · Apr 30, 2019

Wow, that sounds frustrating!

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

Oshengems said:
After almost 6 months my fuzzy reverted to live only for smh, I was feeding chunks of shrimp, cut up silversides and frozen krill, now ghost shrimps only, I get so mad he acts like the chunks of frozen are too big for his mouth he would offer but not gulp and swim away then I add a ghost shrimp probably twice as big as the frozen chunks and gulps it up one bite mouth wide open

This is what I'm hoping not to happen to me. Have you tried dangling the frozen items? Hope yours picks up on frozen again.

lion king · Apr 30, 2019

The only concern about feeding smaller bits of food like mysis, is that he is likely not getting enough to sustain for very long. A 2" fuzzy should be consuming equivalent to 2 full cubes of mysis a week at minimum, that's every morsel not most going into the overflow. PE mysis is a better choice, feed until you see a nice little bulge in his belly, about every other day. One trick for feeding foods like mysis is to use a turkey baster, and get him to take it from the end, then you just squeeze a little at a time until he fills up. You may find some info interesting in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/an-arguement-for-feeding-live-foods.582822/

BadPanda · Apr 30, 2019

JumboShrimp said:
Very beautiful. I have no experience with lion fish, but I can appreciate your hesitancy in going backwards— i.e., giving your fish any reason to become fussy toward frozen food at this stage of the game. If he needs a ‘treat’ every now and then, or something larger, don’t people give lion fish freeze dried krill? Just a thought. Best wishes!

Thanks Jumbo. I try other frozen items on my day off and see how it goes.

BadPanda · May 1, 2019

lion king said:
The only concern about feeding smaller bits of food like mysis, is that he is likely not getting enough to sustain for very long. A 2" fuzzy should be consuming equivalent to 2 full cubes of mysis a week at minimum, that's every morsel not most going into the overflow. PE mysis is a better choice, feed until you see a nice little bulge in his belly, about every other day. One trick for feeding foods like mysis is to use a turkey baster, and get him to take it from the end, then you just squeeze a little at a time until he fills up. You may find some info interesting in this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/an-arguement-for-feeding-live-foods.582822/

Thanks for the link. The amount he eats should be ok then. I turn all flow off and leave the big chunks next to the dwarf and eats it. Granted I've only had it for about close to a week but I'll monitor feeding some more. Might try some LRS on my day off. Thanks for clarifying the amount it needs to eat. Currently feeding every other day with selcon added every other feeding.

vetteguy53081 · May 1, 2019

I would try to stick to frozen as once it eats live, it can or may go after tankmates for a meal. Krill, silversides and small shrimp are other good choices

BadPanda · May 1, 2019

I was going to pick up some lrs frozen but only had rod's. The rod's I picked up wasn't that bad. Just had cut some to smaller pieces. Turns out, my lion only fancies shrimp. Added some scallops and lion definitely gave me the look. I'll try to offer some again. After rod's though, I finally saw a lump on his belly. Safe to say that he's good for couple of days.