What do people feed their rays? I have been breaking the bank buying raw tiger prawns for my rays since getting them about a year ago. I read somewhere that someone was feeding cooked. Cooked are a lot cheaper in the UK but I am not sure if they would be as good for them. Wonder what other people are doing??
Raw or cooked??????
- Thread starter jim barry
- Start date
I feed my rays raw regular shrimp and smelts - tiger prawns are too expensive. I think you lose too many nutrients when cooked. Both shrimp and smelts work out to $4.00/kg. Pellets over here work out to $30.00/kg. I like feeding the smelts as i think smelts provide a balanced diet - rays are eating bones, internal organs, flesh, brains, etc.
Never feed cooked food.
Somewhere there was a thread that got into the specifics of why.... but short version is that it's killing the nutritional value, and you have to feed WAY to much to get the same value to them, which can lead to health issues.
Somewhere there was a thread that got into the specifics of why.... but short version is that it's killing the nutritional value, and you have to feed WAY to much to get the same value to them, which can lead to health issues.
This is surprising... as many many fish keeper I know feed cooked prawms and muscle... is it really that un healthy??
Pellets are my staple feed. . Every day.. with cooked orawns ans muscle 2 days a week in additon...
One of the fish stores I go to told me that it is better to blanch the shrimp because other wise it just passes threw them.blanching is only for a short time so it is still raw inside
So does that mean any food that a ray in the wild eats just passes right thru them? Sorry not trying to sound like a schmuck but that just doesn't make sense to me.
I have been feeding raw shrimp for some time now and it is one of the only things I feed my rays. I won't even bother with pellets unless it is a mixture of foods in a home made gelatin meal.
As of lately I am adding a powdered mixture into the raw shrimp. Similar idea to what reptile keepers would add to crickets. Replaces a lot of things that they are probably missing out on from what they would eat in the wild. So far seems to be going good.
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What exactly are you mixing in that's powder? I am very curious. I am looking into supplemental things to add to my feedings.
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never ever heard of that, and I've done quite a bit of research on rays. I blanch my own shrimp haha I just prefer the raw center. That really doesn't make sense though. just feed them raw. it'll be fine. and the fish (no matter ray or otherwise) will be getting more nutirents.
I am a cook so I know a thing or 2 about what happens when you cook food. most of the nutrients are destroyed, whether its partially cooked or not! just exposing the shrimp to that heat will destroy a lot of the nutrients
I would never cook any fish food, OUR bodies are adapted to cooked food, no other animals are. including all fish obviously. your rays won't get the proper amount of vitamins and nutrients if you keep cooking the food. and yes, you can use cooked food for a short period of time without messing up the fish.
BUT in the long run they will have nutritional defficiency
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