Just had a rather interesting half hour. Sitting watching tv when all of a sudden my 16" male BD starts freaking out and splashing round the tank. My instant thought was that one of the females had tagged him as he has been trying to breed recently.
Anyway I check and they both had the right number if stingers. I then noticed one of his had gone even though it was there only half an hour before during a water change (I check twice a day when rays are due to shed a barb do I can remove it to prevent this happening!).
I then noticed about a quarter of an inch of it sticking out his mouth, luckily at a sideways angle so I knew it would not have hit anything vital. Quickly I got a pan net and cut a hole in it. Caught the Ray and positioned him in the net so his mouth was over the hole. Luckily this ray is really docile when in a net, but I was still very careful as I did not know how he would react to the next stage.
I managed to grip the small amount if the barb that was showing and with a great deal of force managed to pull it out.
The ray stayed calm through out the whole episode. And is already feeding again.
Judging by the small amount of flesh and blood on the barb, it was buried about 1 inch into the ray's mouth.
Lucky escape. And a good technique for accessing a rays belly. I have used it before to remove fish lice from rays.
Sorry I didn't get a photo of the barb in the ray, but was more concerned on acting quickly to remove it.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Anyway I check and they both had the right number if stingers. I then noticed one of his had gone even though it was there only half an hour before during a water change (I check twice a day when rays are due to shed a barb do I can remove it to prevent this happening!).
I then noticed about a quarter of an inch of it sticking out his mouth, luckily at a sideways angle so I knew it would not have hit anything vital. Quickly I got a pan net and cut a hole in it. Caught the Ray and positioned him in the net so his mouth was over the hole. Luckily this ray is really docile when in a net, but I was still very careful as I did not know how he would react to the next stage.
I managed to grip the small amount if the barb that was showing and with a great deal of force managed to pull it out.
The ray stayed calm through out the whole episode. And is already feeding again.
Judging by the small amount of flesh and blood on the barb, it was buried about 1 inch into the ray's mouth.
Lucky escape. And a good technique for accessing a rays belly. I have used it before to remove fish lice from rays.
Sorry I didn't get a photo of the barb in the ray, but was more concerned on acting quickly to remove it.
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
