First rays, any advice is helpful

[swims alot]

Ok the good news is they stated eating today with no issues, they ate frozen bloodworm right off the bat. Ill put in the air stone tonight and ill probably head back to my LFS in a couple days to see if I can find out if they were captive breed or not.

 

[MHDevelopments]

Nice looking pups. The last pic, they look skinny/boney for sure. Bloodworms are bette than nothing mate, but not very nutritious. Grab some garden worms asap from a fishing shop or even dig your own and wash well before chopping up to feed. They should go mad for the large worms and they are great for bulking up young rays. I'd suggest adding in a few small sinking carnivore pellets with each worm feeding, even if they don't take them straight away, it'll help to encourage pellet feeding. Nice one

 

[MEDHBSI]

I usually keep pups at 82 degrees but that might be personal preference. I find they eat more

 

[swims alot]

Ok so this morning I tried to mix up the food a little bit, I tried massivore pellets and they showed no interest. Then I tried some market shrimp they got very excited when I put it in their, but they didn't eat it they both hovered over the shrimp, even small pieces that ik they could have eaten whole. So Im going to keep trying with the shrimp hopefully they will eat it eventually. Im going to try some earth worms tonight. I also tested the water parameters today and had the same results as the first day which is good im going to bump up the temp to 80 over the course of this week.

 

[scott s]

With pups captive born or wild caught, I always start with nightcrawlers chopped super small. Very rarely will a ray turn down nightcrawlers.

I recommend sticking with nightcrawlers for a couple of months to get them fattened up a bit and then slowly start adding in chopped shrimp. After they are used to that and starting to get a bit bigger you can add other items that you want to get them eating.

 

[MHDevelopments]

I had a wc female Hystrix that would only eat nightcrawlers and nothing else, not for want of trying. Tried starving her and all sorts to break her. My point is, can't emphasis it strongly enough, get night crawlers into them. Rich in fat and rays hardly ever say no to them. Feed often. I think you'll do fine with your rays, just plenty of worms and plenty of clean water.

 

[rook45]

Feed them black worms and earthworms to start off. Then when you want to convert them to pellets chop up the earthworms and soak the pellets in the earthworm juice and guts till the pellets absorb it. I have had nothing but success with this method.

 

[swims alot]

Ok so I started feeding earth worms today and the male is eating them but the female is just spitting them back out, so im going to do mixed feedings of bloodworm and earth worm until she catches on. U guys deserve pics for all your help and I have been slacking with that, so here u go lol

 

[jim barry]

Look very thin from what i can make ou. As stated, if wild caught you have your work cut out. Treat for parasites and get them feeding. Good luck!!

 

[rlane]

Feed them tons and tons of night crawlers, feed them 3-4 times a day when they are young and small like that. it is important to put some size on them and fatten them up. Just make sure that you keep the water perfect as you increase the feedings.