Death among the algaes

I lost my volitan lion last night. He has not been eating for about a month. He would attack the food, but his mouth never opened wide enough to take it in. I finally checked his mouth last night, no stings, and his jaw wouldn't extend. I don't know if he had hurt himself or what. He also had been only take small breaths. He has been eathing raw shrimp and some brine shrimp, no freshwater fish at all. There LOTS of small bristleworms in that tank. Could they have stung his mouth?
Anyway sad to see him go. Lions are my favorite fish. I have a coral beauty in there, but you can hardly see him against the rocks.
Maybe I'll really focus on zoa's and such in there.
Cammie I hope you find your guys. It's no fun losing a fish. We all know they are more than just a fish.

What is it about lionfish? It seems like a lot of people's end up that way, stop eating and die, seems like they should be a fairly hardy fish, especially a volitans. Sorry for your loss, they are such a cool looking fish to have.

I've noticed this over the years of being in this hobby to, one thing I wonder most on them is the ones that have had problems with keeping Lions is those who battle unwanted Algae's because of higher nutrient waters as a Lionfish is basically a reef fish and is not subject to higher nutrient based waters and wonder if this may play a part in there short terms in some Aquariums?

That's an interesting idea. His tank has been algae free for the most part. He was not in the tank that had the severe algae problem. Recently, there has been some hair algae growing. His loss of feeding drive started about that time. If I could stand to just kill fish, it would make some interesting research. I know that feeding them just coldwater fish, like goldfish, will end their lives prematurely as the goldfish are too fatty for them.
When I had lionfish in Tulsa, I never had algae and mine grew to about 8 inches, then a breakdown in the city's water plant killed everything.
Live and learn and pass it on.

seaponygirl wrote:I know that feeding them just coldwater fish, like goldfish, will end their lives prematurely as the goldfish are too fatty for them.

Not only that but they don't have the acid in there digestive system to brake down the big bones in a goldfish and will usually tear up there digestive system.