Acquired a very emaciated ray, any help appreciated!

[awdawg]

I acquired a ray yesterday that is incredibly famished. Poor thing looks like it hasn't eaten for months...

Details I know:

The guy told me he was moving soon and needed to re-home the ray and was having no luck selling him.

He's about 11" disc I'd say. He said he's a marble, that I'm not 100% certain on, I'm thinking maybe a marble x regular motoro or a lower grade marble. I'll attach pictures and you guys can help discern that as well.

The previous owner told me that he has only had this guy eating live food, I believe night crawlers and feeders.

It appears he also has a patch of skin missing on the top as well as some chunks missing at the edge of his disk. Maybe a heater burn as well?

This poor ray is mighty rough, here is my plan and I'm open to any and all advice!

1) Get nightcrawlers.
2) daily/bi-daily ~30% WC's treat with 2-3 cups of salt at each WC.
3) Treat with melafix to help heat the tears and missing skin.
4) I want to get ahold of a syringe and inject crawlers with prazi pro, assuming chances are likely he may have parasites. How much prazi pro does one inject?

Down the line if I can bring this guy to health I plan to hopefully convert him over to frozen food and if possible eventually pellets.

 

[awdawg]

Pictures of this poor ray.

 

[Thekid]

Yikes.

Clean water, lights off, keep offering food and he should be able to come around slowly.

Where'd you find him at?

 

[predatorkeeper87]

I like all parts of your treatment plan minus the melafix. Stuffs not worth it and from what I've seen being an oil can create a film on the surface that makes oxygenation tougher, just my experience with it.

I'd just treat with prazi pro...I don't think gutloading with it is necessary, at least I've never heard of that being done with prazi. Metro yes, but prazi it would seem better suited to just treat the tank in general.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

+1 on lights off from Kid, 100% reduction in stress.

 

[UnstoppableJayD]

Plan sounds ok... couple things.. he is a marble.. I wouldn't treat with anything other then salt until he gains some weight ... also i would separate him from other rays unless he is aggressively feeding

 

[awdawg]

Yikes.

Clean water, lights off, keep offering food and he should be able to come around slowly.

Where'd you find him at?

I'll dim the lights way down then and keep them there for a while. A guy in IL has apparently had him a few years. Had him for sale for a few months. I contacted him a while back and he didn't want to sell even though he had him for sale. Then a few weeks ago he changed his mind and wanted to sell. Apparently it's been at his brothers for quite a while and he has to move out of state for a job. As far as I understand I think he's only been feeding him once or twice a week maybe... Found that out afterwords :-/

Plan sounds ok... couple things.. he is a marble.. I wouldn't treat with anything other then salt until he gains some weight ... also i would separate him from other rays unless he is aggressively feeding

I'll work on separating him off when I have available tank space shortly. I'm also hoping he see's the other rays eating the frozen and learns from them.

I like all parts of your treatment plan minus the melafix. Stuffs not worth it and from what I've seen being an oil can create a film on the surface that makes oxygenation tougher, just my experience with it.

I'd just treat with prazi pro...I don't think gutloading with it is necessary, at least I've never heard of that being done with prazi. Metro yes, but prazi it would seem better suited to just treat the tank in general.

The melafix isn't costing me anything essentially, I have 100% tea tree oil already so basically I can make bulk version for pennies vs the ~$16 a bottle. It may leave a slight surface oil in some cases, my tank has 60 liters of air pumped in per minute. and I have dual corner overflows so I'm thinking it will keep it off the surface pretty well.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, appreciate it! Really hoping I can save this guy, I was really surprised when I got him how bad of condition he is actually in.

 

[awdawg]

I just talked to the previous owner as he wanted to see how he survived the trip and how he's doing. Turns out he's only been fed once a week for the past 6 months. Was either night crawlers or feeders, I assume goldfish.

His tank mates included several large clown knife fish, 5 oscars, and a few shovelnose catfish ranging 20-26". Kind of miraculous it is still alive. I hope he's a tough guy and I can bring him up to full health.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

Owner is a deuch bag. Good luck with ray

 

[reefman]

Nice looking ray too bad on his shape. Hopefully he comes around