[swansondan]

Hello everyone, I just got my lion and puffer in the mail and I am having a hard time feeding them. I have tried cut up shrimp dosed in garlic but no luck. I have been trying to find some ghost shrimp but no stores around here have any at the moment, besides I am hoping to make these guys eat frozen not live food. Any ideas would be great!

Thanks
Dan

[jdavis6987]

What kind of lion and puffer are they, and how big are each? Sometimes when you purchase the larger sized fish, they take a lot longer to adjust to aquarium life.

Most lionfish only each 1 to 2 times a week anyway, and some are picky and will only eat live food. If you can't find feeder shrimp, try some feeder fish. My friend feeds his lion some freshwater feeder guppies once a week. They actually can swim around and live for a few hours before the saltwater kills them, but they don't last that long anyway.

As for the puffer... I'm kind of shocked because I've never heard of a puffer not eating. Those guys usually are eating all day long. But try some sponge and krill with the puffer. My puffer will eat the krill right out of my fingers. Some puffers also enjoy some dried algae or seaweed on a lettuce clip, and if you have corals, that will actually help prevent them from nibbling at your investment.

-John-

[jdavis6987]

Ohh yeah, where did you get your fish from? That has something to do with it sometimes.

[swansondan]

Hey John,

It is a voiltan lionfish, maybe 4-5 in, and a porcupine puffer about 4 inches. I got them from saltwaterfish.com. I will try and get some krill to feed him, I will also try some seaweed.

[swansondan]

Puffer laughed at the seaweed. But I finailly found some krill and he scarffed it down. Yeah!!! I will try and slowly get him to eat other things while he is in QT. The lion is now eating frozen shrimp and krill. The trick with him was just to drop it in and let him go at it. I had it on a feeding stick and he did not like that. So thanks for your comments!

[Tangs Rule]

I would feed both of these guys frozen silversides as well. Do not feed them live freshwater feeders as they have no nutritional value for saltwater fish.

How was your experience with saltwaterfish.com? I have ordered from nyaquatic.com (great) and reefhotspot.com (terrible.)

[demonsquirt]

These fish like live food like feeder shrimp small fish and crustations or hermits and snails. Or you can just keep trying differant type of larger meaty frozen food.

Saltwater Fish: Marine Aquarium Fish for Saltwater Aquariums

[DEWAYNE]

you can try the silver sides, I would get a wooden dow rod with a rubber band wrapped around the end holding the silver side from the tail, wiggle this in front of your lion and this will make him assume it is live.

[MasonKiller]

I have heard with silversides you get bone waste which could lead to toxins in your tank.... just what I have heard when I had an eel I would feed him silversides then I heard that story about bone waste so I went to krill....

[guamboy]

i wouldnt suggest feeder guppies i have read in other post that freshwater fish give your fish liver disease..

so heres my story

i caught my lion fish in the wild so this guy was used to only eating alive fish.so what i did to get him to start eating was i would catch maybe 5 to 8 alive damsels then i would take the damsel and flick(not the nicest way but i had to do it) the head not hard enough to kill it but just to stun it and when i threw that fish in the lion fish jump on it.i think there more attracted to weak fish.

so i had no problems feeding him

[Stoss]

I think ghost shrimp would be the best bet. My fish immediately go after them when I put them in the tank.

[Stoss]

swansondan, do you still have the dragon moray?