# Question on feeding my lionfish.



## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

I've got a question on feeding my lionfish. First of, I'm sorry for my ignorance, but when I purchased the lionfish, which is a volital, they told me that they feed him sinking pellets. I've had him a week and he didn't eat, but my clowns did. So we go back to the store and another gentleman told us that we should try feeder guppies. So we put all six in the tank a couple at a time and he devoured them. What is best to feed him, how do you store "feeders", can we ween him to something easier? I'm confused!!! :x 

55gal tank
fake plants
hidy-hole decorations
normal lighting
1 volital lionfish 
2 true percula clown fish

Anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated. I will have lots more questions later on as well. THANK YOU FOR HAVING A FORUM LIKE THIS!!!!


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

Feeder fish are expensive and care has to be taken when using them

First, if you want to use feeder fish you will need to quarantine them for about a month minimum to make sure they arent carrying any paracites, during this time you need to treat them with the same care as the other fish.

Second, Constantly buying them at your lfs can prove to be a hassle

Third, even with that large quarantine there is still a pretty high risk of spreading diseases and paracites.

The best way to carry out a feeder fish diet is to make the fish yourself, buy shrimp or guppies, i would use saltwater feeder shrimp since that way it is more natural and shrimp has a less likely chance of spreading paracites. Put them in a separate tank and wait for them to start having eggs, when you see a female carrying eggs, take her out and put her in yet another tank until she lays them, put the female back in the breeder tank and raise the shrimp yourself, when they are at significant size, net them out and feed them to your fish, pretty soon you will have a pattern and will never run out, plus this way costs less. Do the same with feeder guppies

you also dont give us enough information about your tank, normal lighting?? what does that mean? a desk light on top of the tank or a metal halide light??? please include more specific information


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## DoubleT (Dec 28, 2006)

I have a similar set up. I would suggest you get the lionfish off the freshwater fish. I am a relatively new to saltwater but every thing that I read indicates that long term feeding will cause the fish to die. I am feeding mine squid, silversides and krill. I enhance with Vitachem to boost vitamins. 

The black volatin is about 4 inches now. It eats out of my hands. Can you provide more information as to how long you had it and what it was eating before you bought it. 

PS Your clowns will be gone eventually since the lionfish grows pretty fast and will eventually have a mouth large enough. 


75 Gallon
100 Seaclone protien Skimmer
75 Wet Dry
1 4" Black Volatin
1 3" Yellow Tang
1 1.5" Blue devil damsel (Had another until it got too close)
4 hermit Crabs
2 Snails
UV Sterilizer


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*Lionfish*

The gentleman at the store said that he was eating sinking pellets, the same ones I bought when we bought our clown fish. I know I didn't do enough research into the lionfish before purchasing, but I trusted the "expert" at the store. 

I have a double hood. You know, two lights, two doors. When I say normal lighting, I mean the bulbs that came with the hoods. When I registered for this I didn't have any of my papers or anything on me due to being at work. I plan on putting specifics when I get home. 

I also plan on asking more questions here on this forum. All the information that I have I got from the same guy who gave me the info on the lionfish. Everyone here seems to be marine biologists or something compared to that guy. I really appreciate all this advise. 

I also want to mention that I do have another tank that I was going to donate to a Special Ed class. It's a 20gal tall tank. That's what we started off with to see how we like having fish. We started off with FW, then moved to SW. We enjoyed it so much that we upgraded to our 55gal. 

I have another questions too. We don't have a protein skimmer. I don't know anything about them either. I don't really want to ask the guys at the LFS either now. What do you recommend? We rent in a townhouse so something small preferably, and not too expensive since we are on our way to buying our first home here in the Virginia Beach area. Everything that I've seen ont he internet is HUGE!!! Also, what's a sump?


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## DoubleT (Dec 28, 2006)

I haven't heard any lion fish eating pellet food. From what I understand they are primarily carniverous. Are you talking about frozen meat mixtures.

I got my lionfish to switch from live food by introducing pieces of frozen food during the live fish feeding or put the frozen food on a stick and dangle it in front of them

What are you running on the filtration side?


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## Rogergolf66 (Dec 24, 2006)

Well first off welcome!!!

A sump is a small tank or filter system that is generally under your main display tank. the over flow sends the water through a filter system into a sump. It simply holds water till the pump sends it back up into the main display tank. That is were you would keep your protein skimmer, or you could get a hang on the back protein skimmer.

Also if you want more info you need to give us more info. do you have 

Do you have Live Rock? and how much?
how long has your tank be running for?
what is your Substrate? and how deep is it?
What is your Filter system?

As far as a protein skimmer goes. This will sound like I am a manufacturer but you can't go under $200 on a good protein skimmer.
the $100 ones are junk.

good luck!!!


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

Do you have Live Rock? and how much? 
how long has your tank be running for? 
what is your Substrate? and how deep is it? 
What is your Filter system? 


I don't have any live rock. I plan on getting some now. The LFS didn't mention anything about live rock to me. 

My new tank has been set up for about a month. My smaller one (20gal tall) we had for about 6 months and enjoyed it so much we upgraded.

What is a Substrate? No clue.

I'll have to check and see what filter system we have. It came with the tank, but it's doing very good. We check the chemicals and it stays good. 

Yep, the guy at the store said pellets, not frozen food. Everything that I can read now says they (lionfish) are carnivorious, but he didn't mention anything about that. I mean, why talk like you know about it, just admit that you don't know. I'm talking about the guy at my LFS. 

Thank you Roger for welcoming me. I really appreciate it along with everyone's comments!


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## Rogergolf66 (Dec 24, 2006)

substate is what you have at the bottom of the tank.

Sand?
pebbles?
cushed shell?


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*Feeding my lionfish*

Oh sorry. I have sand, not live though. It's about an inch deep mostly. There are places that are more shallow. My clownfish dig wholes and like to lay in them. My filter is Top Fin 60. 

I tried the krill and he swam to it and just followed it around, but wouldn't touch it. We had to go get more feeder guppies so he would eat. My clown fish seemed to like the krill, but was too big to swallow. I'm going to get some garlic and soak the krill in that. They said that it makes it more enticing to the lionfish.


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## DoubleT (Dec 28, 2006)

Is the lionfish coming up to you when you begin to feed it?

Try moving it in your finger tips at the water surface to see if he will take it.


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*Feeding my lionfish*

He comes up to me when I get home and when I walk by as well. It's better than a dog, I just love him. Who knew fish had such personalities. But we tried the feeding it to him, and we tried putting it on the end of a skewer to make it look like it was swimming. He's really smart I guess. I'm really at my wits end here. I don't want to keep feeding him the FW feeder guppies as I've heard they aren't that good for him and he'll die anyway. 

When my husband puts his tongue on the side of the aquarium and run it along the glass, he swims up and follows him. I tried to upload a photo of it, but the photo is too big. I'll have to get it up.


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## Rogergolf66 (Dec 24, 2006)

that is cool and all, but who thinks of putting there tonge on the glass of the tank LOL :jk:


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*Question on feeding my lionfish*

I don't know why he thought of it. He (the fish) seems to be real nosy. He watches us all the time. I guess he bent over and stuck his tongue out at him and he swam up to the glass. Like I said before, I never realized fish had such personallities. We are heading out to get a protein skimmer today. We found out that our filter isn't doing anything for our tank. The only one that our LFSs have are the Coral Life hang-on the back kinds, and then the we-dry ones. We'll look at the benifit of having the we-dry later, but we really want to get a proper filtration system on it as soon as possible. We are also researching live rock. One store has either fiji or marshall island rocks. Which do you recommend? The fiji is cheaper (approx $699/lb), I like the look of the fiji. The Marshall island rocks are approx $9.89/lb. I don't know what they look like, but I've barely done any research. I'm really getting into this and enjoying it.


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

You got the top-fin starter kit im guessing, these are no good for saltwater, there not even good for freshwater, you should buy a new filter now, maybe get a different heater rather than all-glass, then change the light to either compact flourecent, metal halide, or VHO, you might be able to use a T5 as well. But you really have to get rid of the filter, it is no good


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## jdecorse25 (Feb 13, 2007)

*Question on feeding my lionfish*

Yeah, I realized that. A gentleman at a different LFS explained it to me. I went out and bought a protein skimmer. I got the SeaClone 100. It's hanging on the back. Working good for now, but no bubbles have formed yet, but it says that it could take awhile. It says that it depends on the bioload, which ours must be good, because with that top-fin filter the chemicals stayed good, never dipped down/up.

I'm also looking for live rock. What's the difference between Fiji and Marshall Island? Big price difference.


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## musho3210 (Dec 28, 2006)

fiji is mainly used as a base, marshal is used for the edges, for a begginer, i would get fiji and maybe one day when you can be bothered get some other ones like tonga branch rock or something like that


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