Is this normal

[noahclay82]

I got this lionfish about a week all was well till I noticed him breathing a little weird today (video is included) he had his morning and afternoon food but now he is not eating maybe he isn’t hungry just the breathing has me a little worried and all my other fish are good and acting normal and my water is good

 

[jda]

I don't know about the breathing, but when I had lions, they would not eat every day. Grew them up to a foot before I had to move them to larger tanks.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Looks like a lionfish doing lionfish things to me. Not rapid breathing or anything. I have exp with dwarfs and they usually camp out most of the day. Volitan lionfish tend to be out more but but can sometimes just sit there. He's probably fine and maybe skip a day or two of feeding and drop to once a day if he's not a baby. Other than that keep an eye on him and look for any signs of stress like gasping or rapid breathing.

 

[noahclay82]

Looks like a lionfish doing lionfish things to me. Not rapid breathing or anything. I have exp with dwarfs and they usually camp out most of the day. Volitan lionfish tend to be out more but but can sometimes just sit there. He's probably fine and maybe skip a day or two of feeding and drop to once a day if he's not a baby. Other than that keep an eye on him and look for any signs of stress like gasping or rapid breathing.

That makes me feel better while I’m at work thank you. Do you know why he opened his mouth as wide as he can today to?

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Fish will regularly yawn or stretch their mouth wide open flexing the jaw muscles. Nothing unusual with that. Lionfish strike prey and swallow it whole by rapidly opening their mouth to create a vacuum and the prey item gets sucked in under the blink of an eye. My fuzzy's would flex/yawn all the time.

You can keep live feeder shrimp and acclimate black molly's to SW to give him live prey to go after when he's hungry as well.

 

[noahclay82]

Fish will regularly yawn or stretch their mouth wide open flexing the jaw muscles. Nothing unusual with that. Lionfish strike prey and swallow it whole by rapidly opening their mouth to create a vacuum and the prey item gets sucked in under the blink of an eye. My fuzzy's would flex/yawn all the time.

You can keep live feeder shrimp and acclimate black molly's to SW to give him live prey to go after when he's hungry as well.

The lionfish has been eating krill soak in vitamins as well

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I was never able to get either of my fuzzy to consistently take frozen. They are much more difficult to switch over compared to volitans. Feeder shrimp and black molly's though.. Oh boy did they ever go nuts for those.

 

[jda]

As it grows, you are going to need to get it whole food with guts and everything. For example, whole shrimp is better than just tails - shells are OK too. Whole cut up squid, octopus, cuttlefish, etc. are great. You can get a lot of this for a decent price at your local Asian Food Market, but you might have to cut some of it up. I am not a Krill fan, but the whole pacific plankton are good, but usually too small when the lion gets larger. There are lots of options out there.