[Blacktip]

Tom / Anyone

Hi!

I've had my Lion from a nipper and is now the size of my hand. I wanted to vary his diet and so got him Frozen raw king prawn. I defrost it, gave the lion a chuck and a chunk to the trigger. when the trigger spat his out the lion took his bit too!
Next day the Lion looks unhappy, sulking in the corner in maximum flow with red gills, breathing heavily. I have noticed similar behavior from him before when feeding him prawn but though it was because it was cooked. The next day he got white spot. He is still much the same. He is still feeding, although back on fish.
I'm not bothered by the white spot but would like to know if there is anything I can do cheer him up a bit? I guess he's been poisoned by the prawn?

Cheers

[tommo]

If the food was frozen, and fed immediately after thawing, its probably not poisoning, I would look more to either blockage or simply gorging too much. Be careful with lions, they will eat themselves to death. The whitespot needs careful monitoring, and the lionfish needs to go onto a mix of sandeel or lancefish, cockle or mussel and common uncooked prawn in smallish pieces all suplemented with lipovit or liposome spray. Most will also eat new era flake with a little work on the part of the aquarist. Frozen foods are missing massive amounts of necessary vitamins, to the enrichment is absolutely vital to avoid problems at a later date.

how do you feed your lion atm, and with what kind of regularity?

Cheers

Tom

[Blacktip]

Thanks Tom

It was fed straight after thawing. Should that not be done? I though the food oxidised if not fed after thawing?
It did seem to take a long time before his stomach went down, it has now. He has taken Whitebait for the last couple of days. He also takes flake that is intended for the trigger.
He has developed a bit of cloudy eye and what looks like excess mucus in areas. He is pale and is lying about on the bottom. Still responsive to feeding though. I've noticed the blood vessels in his mouth are very red.
I usually feed him 2 halves of white bait every other day and he has flake in between. In the summer I catch him live local rockpool shrimp.

Cheers

[tommo]

If his fins and mouth are red, and bloody, he might have poisoning but its more likely to be vitamin deficiency and resultant anaemia. He will respond well to supplements.

Cloudiness is again a good pointer regarding lack of vitamins. Its probably just coincidence that the fish has just eaten king prawn then started like this, or maybee digesting such a substantial meal has tipped him over the edge.

Feeding straight after thawing is good, continue as such.



HTH

tom

[Blacktip]

Hi Tom

My lion started to improve but seems to be going backwards again. I've had the spray on order for about 3 weeks but it's still not come through. I've started to be a bit imaginative. I've cut whitebait up and put a load of flakes inside and some algae and a very small amount of garlic. No idea if it will help but need to try something!
His eyes appear to be covered in a fungus. Not cloudy on the inside but it looks like a thick layer of white stuff covering the eye. Do you know what it is and how to get rid of it? It seems to be making him very uncomfortable, think it might impair his feeding too.

Cheers