Fuzzy dwarf lion won't eat.

I recently picked up a super red fuzzy dwarf lionfish for my 55 gallon reef (I don't keep any shrimp). He had been eating well at the store and they let me see him eat a piece of dried krill.

He was an eager eater. He even let me handfeed him. He would get excited when he saw me and swim over to the glass and such. But a few days ago during a water change, I lifted a rock and he popped out from under it with a "WTF" kind of look, but I know I didn't injure him. He won't eat anymore, though.

He'll swim over to the food I'm holding, look at it and then swim away. I tried giving it by (gloved) hand, wiggling it with long tweezers, just letting it float around. He shows interest, but never eats anything. Tried live ghosties, frozen and freeze drid krill, flakes and pellets. It's been five days, which isn't long but he had been eating daily.

Could it be he's not hungry? His tummy isn't sunken, but I'm not missing any crabs or snails, so he's not eating. Other fish (bnw false perc) is eating fine.

Why didn't I think of garlic? Thanks, I'll try your ideas and then update.

I've had him a little over a month. This is the first week he hasn't been eating anything. He took to eating right away, like the first day. I did give him some ghost shrimp when I first got him to help him some.

I forgot to say but I also feed formula one and two, beef heart and blood worms on occasion. I'll get a few different pellets and some fish fillets and try to wean him onto those from live feeders. Squid's a bit hard to find out here lol. No calamari dinners for him.

It's been six or seven days since he's eaten last. Yesterday, I tried to give him some whiite fish (cod I think) rubbed with a little garlic. He looked at it, then turned his nose up.

I'm going to pick up more ghost shrimp today and hope he eats them. I hope he's just doing like you said and going through a phase.

Sorry for the double post, but I did get him to eat some ghost shrimp today. I guess he just decided he didn't want to eat anything that wasn't live anymore. I wonder why he suddenly changed his mind... Oh well, at least he's eating something now.