FW Lionfish eating problem

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kabaltah

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 4, 2008
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Hello, I have a fw lionfish (Batrachus trispinosus) for a little more than a month.It stayed in fresh water for the first 2 weeks till I set up and cycle a brackish tank. In that time it ate only 2 small guppies although I offered many different kinds of live fish(corys, goldfish, kuhli loach, livebearers, shrimp vs) and raw beef and chicken meat.
Now it stays in a 20 galloon brackish tank (1.006-1.008 sg) with 30 black mollies, 10 other color mollies, 10 small guppies but ignored all of them till last night. One of the mollies give birth to fry and fw lion gone crazy, it searched every corner of the tank for molly fries and ate all that it can find. But still ignores all the larger fish. My fw lion is 8" and considering it ate almost nothing for at least a month, I shall find 100-200 ish fry a day to get it fed:irked:.

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Why is it ignoring all other fish except fry and what can I do about it?
 
It ate a cory & the fish didn't get stuck?
 
No, it didn't eat a cory. I'm breeding cory cats so I have little cories which I offered fw lion to eat. I know that cory is dangerous so I had cut pectoral spines before offering to fw lion. But it ate only 2 small guppies when it was in fw tank. And ate only molly fry in brackish tank.
 
Its not hard to imagine it not eating for a month if its been stressed.

Usually the more fish in their environment, the more reclusive they can get.

However, I'd try getting frozen prawn/krill/silver sides. Also, something that should help - garlic guard. Soak/thaw the frozen food in the garlic guard, then offer it to the stone fish/lion fish using long tongs, or straight airline tubing.

He SHOULD take it.
 
Thanks for the reply. Yes, there is too much fish in the aquarium and they are all feeders for the stonefish. I put that many to increase the chance of stone fish to encounter, select and eat them. But if it causes stress to the fish I can take some of the feeders out.
I dont think that i can find frozen krill and silver sides but frozen prawn is ok, I'll try. Also it's very hard to find garlic guard here but I'll try.

What about the the stonefish eating fish fry like crazy but dont even seem to be noticing larger fish?
 
Smash up garlic cloves & soak your food in that.
 
I tried beef heart and prawn soaked into smashed garlic via airline tubing and leaving in front of the fish but no hope, it didnt even notice them, still trying to catch fry :( Also added 10 smallest size guppies to the tank if it is a matter about the size of the feeders but it ignored them too...
 
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