lionfish tips

[fishforlife]

I am palnning my aquarium and would like to have my final fish (after a several months) be a lion fish. What caution woudl you give me? What types of fish would you recomend? What should I avoid? Any personal experience would be welcomed.

PS...90+ gallon FOWLR....

[apedroza]

Nothing smaller than it, and don't get poked by the fins!!!

[ErikH]

I would get a dwarf lion as they get very very big. The dwarf Volitans are awesome, they stay small and are much more managable than a large lion. If you use a net, you have to be very careful as to not mess up their fins. You will be a resident at Polly's buying feeders.

[fishforlife]

can you eventually wean the lionfish off of feeder foods and feed them fresh fish? Also...do they really attack your ornamental shrimp? what other tanks mates do they bother?

[millerdog]

Nothing smaller than it, and don't get poked by the fins!!!

Like apedrora said stay clear of the fins! They will smart for a few days if even grazed (learned the hard way). As for size I like the dwarfs as well have one that is just shy of a year old and ever one but him eats a homemade frozen deal he only eats live fish and wants nothing to do with live shrimp and it eats any fish that are about 1/2 its body size.

[alton]

What ever fits it its mouth they will eat, including a Humu Trigger (Friends Tank)

[abe77901]

I use to hand feed my lion, krill and silversides. Start him on live feeders then slowly ween him over by flicking the dead food, giving it motion, they will hit it. They always hit it head first, make sure krill, or silversides still have head and eyes on it. As for ornimenatl shrimp, i use to keep a cleaner, coral banded and blood red shrimp in the same tank. He never bothered them. They are awesome fish with tons of personality. Good luck....

[Euclid]

I use to hand feed my lion

:o

[mdavis735]

my brother in law has a dwarf lionfish.it is really cool.so far has not eatin anything that it is not supposed to.they say it will eat anything that can fit in its mouth if it decides to.including snails and hermit crabs.he eats frozen silversides and has never eatin anything else since he's had him.he was told by the lfs to be sure they have the eyes,and to hold them by the tail with tweezers or a feeding stick and wiggle the eyes in front of him.that never worked.he did discover on his own though. . . . . . if he gave the shrimp to a hermit crab in the same area as the lionfish.the lionfish would immediately take it away from the crab and eat it himself.guess he was just a bully like that.or selfish.now he can just drop it in the tank somewhere that he can see it and the lionfish will run over and "strike" it.its pretty evil looking when it does.lol.one thing to keep in mind.it can go a week or so between feedings.so if you keep trying frozen and dont give up.he might be more likely to accept it when he starts to get more hungry.i wouldnt let it go more than 10 or so days.then try live.once he's eatin you can hold out on him again.i think eventually he'll accept it.