Stingray Autopsy - not for the weak stomach

Raymann88

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2011
606
8
48
Canada
My 3 year old female BD died unexpectedly with no visible signs of cause of death. I decided to cut her open to see if there was anything internally. Everything looked fine to me - liver red and looked healthy, had digested food contents in the stomach, gills looked clean.

Picture when I netted her out - her back was really swollen

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I cut her open from the back first as she was pretty humped up - she was probably bloated. You can see her stomach, intestines and liver. Their backs are really tough and it took several passes with a sharp exacto knife to cut through. You can see she had a fair amount of body fat (white stuff) that was located on her back. Now I know why it is hard to see the pups moving on fat females. The liquid stuff was the contents of her stomach - remnants of the smelts she ate the night before. If you zoom in you can see the spines of the smelts

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Gills - they looked clean with no flukes

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Then I cut her open from the belly - no signs of worms, cysts, etc.

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Oral Cavity - Thought she may have eaten a stinger and got it lodged inside. There have been a few posts of rays eating stingers and one had the stinger coming out through the top of her head. Nothing. Felt and rubbed all inside to see if something sharp had lodged inside her, didn't find anything.

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Any insights others may have or things they notice, please feel free to comment. Maybe we can learn something from this.

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Gumby79

Candiru
MFK Member
Apr 23, 2006
327
6
48
Calgary
Very sorry for your loss. Was she the one that looked so huge/pregnant in that pic of the whole tank shot in" The new Stingray Room" tread. If she was, was there any signs of pup development? I had a unexpected death last year with one of my female and I figured it was pregnancy complications that did her in but still not 100% sure why as well.
 

vamptrev

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 23, 2007
8,227
863
924
Chesterfield MI
I would guess maybe obesity could be the cause of death. She looks prego

Im pretty sure most gill flukes are microscopic but i dont think they would be the case anyways since she was eating good and acting normal

I had a female ray get super fat i thought she was prego but she never had pups. I came to the conclusion that she was obese and i put her on a diet until her butt went down


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Raymann88

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2011
606
8
48
Canada
Very sorry for your loss. Was she the one that looked so huge/pregnant in that pic of the whole tank shot in" The new Stingray Room" tread. If she was, was there any signs of pup development? I had a unexpected death last year with one of my female and I figured it was pregnancy complications that did her in but still not 100% sure why as well.
No she was not my big female ray in the stingray room thread. She was not preggo either. I had the male in the tank for a few weeks to breed with my big girl, but he never touched this one - I think she was still immature.
 

Raymann88

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2011
606
8
48
Canada
I would guess maybe obesity could be the cause of death. She looks prego

Im pretty sure most gill flukes are microscopic but i dont think they would be the case anyways since she was eating good and acting normal

I had a female ray get super fat i thought she was prego but she never had pups. I came to the conclusion that she was obese and i put her on a diet until her butt went down


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I think she bloated up after dying. She normally didn't look that big. I only feed once a day and a set amount of food. I know they could / would eat more if I gave it to them.

Your right gill flukes are microscopic, but I would suspect the gills would be reddened or inflamed. They looked normal to me.

I like your idea of putting the big girl on a diet. She has looked Preggo for 8 months now. I've put the male in with her 2-3 times, he goes after her over a 2-3 week period biting her up pretty good, but no signs of pups. She is almost 3 1/2 years old and should be mature.
 

bonesb66

Bronze Tier VIP
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2010
1,536
3
768
Birmingham
First time i've ever saw an autopsy.

It's great to see things like this posted for others to learn - unfortunately i can't contribute anything to help you but i just wanted you to know that i learnt from it as i'm sure other did.
 

Raymann88

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 1, 2011
606
8
48
Canada
First time i've ever saw an autopsy.

It's great to see things like this posted for others to learn - unfortunately i can't contribute anything to help you but i just wanted you to know that i learnt from it as i'm sure other did.
As rudimentary as it was. I was hoping to find something to confirm cause of death. Didn't see anything but gave me a new understanding of stingray biology. I wish I had been a bit more careful, taken a bit more time and more pictures. I think I would have learned more. I had a hunch as to why she died and rushed to see if I was right.
 
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