FW Lionfish eating problem

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
No crushed coral, it's abrasive. Use a fine sand, like aragonite.. sugar sand sized works well. If you like black, try black beach sand. Make sure its calcium based, and it will buffer your brackish water.


If hes chasing and eating the fry but not eating the adults, he's perfectly healthy. The fry are just more desirable at the moment. When he gets hungry, he will eat the adults.

I have rays that will only eat live black worms, while other rays the same size eat krill.. some food sources are just easier to predate upon.

He is likely wild caught (peru?) and in the wild, he would ambush predate on fish of a very small size. He probably never HAD to eat a molly-sized fish or had the problem of starving in the wild. When he gets hungry enough, he WILL eat those Mollys.. but being an ambush predator they are very opportunistic and have amazing fasting abilities and would rather wait it out for desired meals. They are not gluttons like SW lionfish that eat based on limitations of food (ie: in captivity they gorge themselves, because in the wild they have the ability to graze 24/7, SW lionfish recognize this.)..


I would not sweat it.. it's probably stressed from tankmates and lack of burrowing ability. It will just take longer for it to acclimate under these conditions. It took over a month to get the fresh imports to take krill from a stick, and even then we had to basically put it right in their mouth.. and even then, they only ate every few weeks.

With a food source in the tank he won't allow himself to starve but will definitely be picky for as long as he has too.. He is probably holding out for another batch of fry, but don't give in!! (he might be eating more fry than you know about, thus not eating the adults)
 
Thanks for both answers.
First, I have black sand, brand "prodac"(made in italy). It is more like fine gravel, 2-3 mm(0,078-0,118 inch) diameter of rounded stones, said to be made of quartz. Is it ok? I know it is silly to ask about sand if it is ok but I'm keeping aquatic animals for more than 15 years but never ever used sand or gravel as substrat.

The bigger one doesnt seem to eat fry anymore, at first it was chasing fry all over the tank but now fries goes over it's head and it does nothing.
It would be good if you advice me a small sized fish which can live in brackish and suitable price to be used as feeders. In Turkey there is no feeder fish, the word feeder-fish is not even known. I buy my feeders from the suplier of my friend's pet-shop. And smallest molly that comes there is about 1,5 inch.

And is there a possiblity of my bigger one to eat the smaller one if I release the smaller to the tank? Currently it stays in a 2 gal. fry cage(a small artifical cave, an artifical plant and a few small stones).
 
quartz should work.. Silica is bad. Crushed Coral is bad.

Try Guppys? They can live in higher salt ranges.. everything else will be expensive.

The ones I had lived togethor, but they were the same size.. the tank size might be the issue with the non-feeding. More space makes fish act more natural, it's amazing..
 
kabaltah;1918930; said:
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?
Click to expand...

He need not eat fish. He wants crustaceans to grind his big teeth on. Feed him small ghost shrimp by hand, meaning: use your hand to release the live ghost shrimp somewhere near his cave and release it, then carefully use your hands to encourage him to go in the cave with your stone. Use your hands like a sheep dog herds sheep to guide them in so he smells your hand right before he eats... then when you stick your hand in the tank he'll know it's feeding time and you can start to drop prev. frozen shrimp in front of his opening and he should start eating pretty much anything.

BTW: there are 2 types of "freshwater lionfish" -- Batrachus trispinosus and Allenbatrachus Grunniens -- I doubt you can tell the difference between them because I sure can't. If you have Allenbatrachus Grunniens than the salinity should be around 1.005 -- if you have Batrachus trispinosus then the salinity should be 1.020-1.024. I have kept my Lionfish/Stonefish in completely freshwater to barely brackish for a couple years and she has laid eggs. I assume she is A. Grunniens.

Perhaps yours is the same, perhaps not, but if she's what you say she is, she should definately be in Saltwater, not 1.006.

Here is a part of my "article" on their diet:
DIET *VERY IMPORTANT*
Toadfish are carnivores and will eat pretty much anything you feed them. Since they are rarely kept in fish tanks there is little information about their diet in the wild. Therefore, one has to conclude on what the appropriate diet is based on pseudo science and some common sense. A. Grunniens has a very similar marine-counterpart known as an "oyster-toadfish" meaning the fish is known for crushing and eating oysters. Experienced fisherman often can vouch for how strong this fish'es mouth is and how careful one should be when unhooking one of these guys as they can crush your finger nail (if not more) quite easily. With this in mind and given that A. grunniens also has teeth like it's marine counterpart, one can assume that this fish would benefit from a high calcium and hard/crunchy diet. A. grunniens will never get large enough to eat a full size oyster. However freshwater clams may be an option (often sold frozen for puffers and alive for filtration) for a full-grown A. Grunniens. The most common and logical choices would be baby crayfish, glass shrimp, fiddler crabs, and shrimp tails for the smaller specimen. Keep in mind they do love to eat an occasional soft meal (preferably seafood). Scallops, meal worms, live fish etc. are the obvious choices for soft seafoods.
The next important decision is HOW you will feed your toadfish. If you keep your toadfish in a species only tank you may prefer to keep live food in the tank with your fish keeping in mind that stonefish never over eat. If you are keeping crustaceans in your tank as feeders, it's best to keep them in fairly small numbers so the ones that don't get eaten right away don't bother your toadfish. While they may not be able to injure your toadfish they can stress them out as toadfish like to be left alone. This species has a series of small white barbels sticking out all over it's face that appear to be very attractive to ghost shrimp. While this serves as a perfect lure it can be very annoying if you have a lot of glass shrimp with 1 toadfish in a small tank so it may be best to feed what the fish can consume within a couple of days.
If you want to train your fish to eat frozen food, it generally helpsto start with live food and form some patterns that the fish can associate with food. The smell of your hand in the water helps, you can also wave your finger near his cave-entrance so he can see it (without scaring him) and you can also tap on the glass before and after he eats. Glass shrimp are the easiest food to start with. You just pick one up by hand so it can't jump out, release it gently at the bottom of the tank in front of the cave entrance and wave your fingers at the glass shrimp and guide him into the cave. You can also tap on the glass before you put your arm in the tank and again with your other hand right when the fish eats the food. Gentle tapping very gently with your finger nail shouldn't scare the fish. Eventually he will associate the presence of your hand, the waving, and tapping with food. After about 10 live feedings you can try feeding frozen. Use a soft tool like a stem from a plant to move the shrimp in very short natural movements. Bring it closer and closer to the toadfish VERY VERY gradually. You don't want to scare it but keep in mind it may be waiting for the food to get closer before making it's move. Over time you may find that your toadfish will eventually eat food if you just leave it in front of his cave for a minute or two. Sometimes the fish gets so used to the smell that it becomes unecessary to wave your fingers or tap on the glass. Just leaving the food in front of the cave for a few minutes will be enough.
Feeding frozen is not only healthier as it eliminates warm water parasites, but it saves you a LOT of money. Generally the cheapest price for feeder glass shrimp is 25 cents a shrimp. $10 will get you 40 random shrimp of various sizes/weight. $10 spent right at albertson will get you about 2LBS of frozen shrimp. You can buy raw deveined/ez peel or raw deveined/tail-on and just feed him the tails and eat the shrimp yourself.
 
Here are two fishbase links which may be helpful in determining the aquarium conditions for your "freshwater lionfish"

Batrachomoeus trispinosus (Günther, 1861)
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/spe...sus&AT=Batrachomoeus+trispinosus&lang=English

Allenbatrachus grunniens (Linnaeus, 1758)
http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=6391

Also,in my humble opinion,try a soft muddy or sandy substrate,preferably dark in colour and get rid of the surplus feeders. These fish can and will survive prolonged periods of starvation and should gradually start feeding once they feel secure.
Constantly potting in and around the aquarium is likely to result in a stressed fish and will eventually lead to loss.
Just my two cents worth,
Javed Jameer Ahmed.
 
my stone fish nomaly eats ghost shrimp but has also ate 2 good size kribs and tried to eat my other stone fish
 
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