Force feeding a Volitan

[Base]

Maybe you could quarantine him if you have a big enough qt. that way you could easily lower the nitrate in the qt. meanwhile you could remove the cc and do a massive water change. stirring the cc will cause a nutrient spike. if it were me id remove it all at once- one spike instead of a bunch

 

[Snidgetless]

Yeah like i said before, i would need over 100 gallons to hold my fish and i don't have that. Plus i have no room to set it up, and have it running. I would need someone to baby sit the fish for me while i do the complete change as its not going to happen in several small chunks.

 

[Base]

If you have a good lfs they should hold him for you. but they probably wont give him the attention he needs. fyi my lion is about 9 inches now(old pic). i feed him every other day as a rule. If i feed silversides i will give him about 2-3 inches soaked w/ selcon or lately ive been using zoecon and zoe. i alternate between silversides, clams, squid and food from supermarket.

 

[gurumasta]

PetCo in Woburn sells damsels the cheapest, $4 a pop, so i grab 5 and toss them in. The smart ones last a couple days, the lesser intelligent ones go right away. 10-15 ppm for a Nitrate level is not high... its just a pain. My Nitrates are over 100. I know its due to my poor choice in using CC as a substrate, but at this point to change it all out would require finding someone to babysit my fish for a week or so. My guys are big, and it would need a tank at least 100 gallons or more. I don't know what to do. The high Nitrates already caused a big ich breakout. I have almost gotten past that now, and i am consistently siphoning the bottom to remoe any crap in there. I think i am slowly gaining on the issue and the Nitrate level is down to about 120. I know, its pretty bad. And it all happened in about the course of two weeks it just all crashed. I feel a bit better now knowing that the Lionfish is eating, that was my biggest concern with this whole thing. But force feeding is obviously always a last resort.

if your nitrates shot that high in two weeks than there could be an outside source other than the cc coral causing problems. i would def say do some large size water changes in a short amount of time to alleviate at least temporarly the nitrate issue. are you using ro/di water for topoff and water changes?

 

[Snidgetless]

Oh yes, always use RO/DI water... It really is do to trapped food in the substrate, i know it is. I have been doing about 30 gal water changes every two weeks recently to help combat it. Also i have been target feeding everyone so nothing gets sweeped by the powerheads into a corner. For now, i am slowly winning the battle. But in the near future it will require a complete substrate change-out. Only thing i need right now is another tank to house these guys for a week and a few hours to change it all out.

 

[DawnOctopus]

Why don't you temporarily house him in a really big rubbermaid tub? That way you could keep an eye on him and not have to trust anyone to babysit while you are changing the substrate.

 

[Snidgetless]

Its a great idea, but its not going to happen because i would need a very large tub first of all for these fish, second i have a very active eel so the tub would need to be completely sealed and third i don't have any room in my small house. I am talking to a friend right now hoping he could set up a 100 gal tank real quick for me to take these guys for a week... we will see.

 

[audioguy]

i found that my lion likes to petted from time to time. he gets moody if i dont pet him at least once a week. i think maybe you should try that.....

just kidding!!!! thought id lighten up the mood here a bit.....

ps: do not pet your fish!!!! im not going to be responsible for any injury/death that may occur!!!!!

 

[moespeaking]

I used feed a lion that same way, never had an issue.