lionfish is swimming in circles non stop, not being himself

hi my volitian lionfish is swimming in circles, and he is not him self latley. my other lionfish is fine. water is good, he is in a 240 gal. eats shrimp, some rosy red feeders, ghost shrimp, and fresh fish pieces. he almost looks like he might be going blind, he will bump stuff occasionally. he is getting older. i have had him for prob 4 years and he was about 2" to 2.5" long when i got him. he has even been doing it when the lights are out. any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Erf. My first thought when I read he was swimming in circles was, "what are you feeding him". Then a couple of sentences later, there it was.... Rosey Reds. They have Thiaminase in them, and basically "break down" thiamine (B1). I've dosed my tanks with a B complex vitamin on a number of fish that I newly acquire or was acting a little off. Low levels of B1 will cause neurological quirks (swimming in circles) and they can act like they are blind. A lot fo times they also become anorexic and refuse food. I've had them come back by dosing th etank with a B complex and a Vitamin C. I CAN'T say enough good things about Vitamin C. Seriously, I think we are going to see great things come of it in the future. I think we are missing the boat by not paying enough attention to it.

A four year old volitans is just a baby. The have been know to live for over 20 years in people's tanks.

Can you post a picture?

What other types of fish do you feed them? Any krill?

When is the last time you had a good water change? That's what I always do first when someone is "off".

 

thanks for helping, we eat fish about ever week or two and i save them a nice fillet of something like tilapia, salmon, perch, cod. etc. do you have a preference on vitamins?? i do not have a new pic but there is one on the other thread (hes the big one) that you helped me with about my russel not eating. he is back to his old self by the way. i will try to get a new one on here. one of the reasons im wondering about the blindness is that when i feed he will not chase food anymore, but if i hold it in front of him he usally acts like he is starving and about knocks my long tongs out of my hand. if he gets a wiff of food he will try to hit at it way before it is close, its like he is guessing. he will bump things and act supprised when he hits. he uses his fins to feel around the rock. i am due for a water change its been about 4 weeks or so. i usally change about 20 to 25 gal more if i can. 20 years hu, wow i thought it was about 10 to 15 in the wild less in captivity.

 

There was a poll that was started awhile back about the years of life in captivity for the volitans. It included over 1200 people. It's not a legit statistical study or anything and there's too many variables for it to really hold any weight. BUT out of the respondants, >60% were able to keep them under a year. :-( That's very sad. Round about 2.5% had them over 20 years, so it's possible.

We fail in giving them appropriate foods. I have absolutely NO doubt of that. I did a little month following of what people were feeding their lions and scorps. Even though they tried, many failed at proper nutrition.

What are you feeding them on a weekly basis. Can you give me a run down?

I went to a vitamin store and got some B complex with all natural stuff in it. Crushed it up, mixed it in saltwater and threw it in over 30 minutes (just in case it messed with the pH). I have no research that says this is the way to go about it, it's just what I do. I dose my tanks with brightwell Liquid vitamin C.

Then add vitamins to the food. I show how I do it in the following video. I now use aquaculture grade Beta Glucan. It's the Bomb.

Change a nice bit of water before adding the vitamins.

 

is that your lion? hes beautiful!!! seems to know exactly when you are going to feed him, come up to you like a dog

 

Do you find the aquaculture grade to be a lot better than the stuff from the health food store.

 

Keep us posted on how he does. This is very interesting.

 

Oh yes. The local stuff is white (filler) with a a few brown flecks (BG). The aquaculture grade in all brown, no filler. But you do what you can do.

Ya, that's my girl. We really don't know the sex, but to us, her body/head size/shape looks like a girl.