Stingray Feeding

[davenmandy]

Young ray, 3 times a day, 1-2 year old ray, twice a day, 2+ year day you can probably get away with once a day. Rays will be hungry being fed once a day, but they can still live off it if the feedings are big enough, their growth rate just wont be very fast. You have to ask yourself how much you are willing to spend on food and if you feel you have the time in your life to feed them twice vs. once. Cant say my rays get fed twice every day (I work 2 jobs and am in school) but I feel guilty when they don't. I wouldn't miss a feeding for my black lab, rays get just as hungry and understand schedule just as well I THINK. You also have to ask yourself if you want them to breed, because if you do I hear that twice a day is a must. Pregnant female = at least twice a day no question, or else baby may get absorbed. Can your filter keep up with twice a day large feedings? Don't necessarily want to sacrifice water quality do you?

In sum: can do once a day for your average ray keeper, but if you want prime tip top shape rays for breeding, feed twice a day.

 

[WarrendaFish]

Agreed. My rays get fed twice a day. Then once in a while, as previously stated, everybody (not just the rays) get a day off, unless they're babies. Everyone gets a variety of pellets (mostly from kensfish) quarantined live food, and some frozen. (shrimp, tilapia, etc) also I am a chef and get to bring home fish scraps of salmon, scallop, cod, tuna, etc which is a nice a month treat. Especially salmon. Can be very oily. I also was using a lot if Canadian earthworms.. Until it was really cold here in MA. but will pick back up with them soon. They are a tank favorite.


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[FLESHY]

Is everyone just buying worms at the bait store?

Leaving them on paper towel for 24 hours to purge?

Im interested to know people's processes and whether or not the source matters. Not sure what the bait people are feeding their worms or bedding them in and if its ray safe or not.

 

[awdawg]

Currently my motoro pup gets smelt, market prawns, scallops, and blood worms all chopped up finely mixed up and placed into ice cube trays. I started breaking up some xtreme aquatics cat scrapers and tossing them in the cubes as well. Hopefully she takes to them and will start accepting pellets. Then I'll incorporate kens pellets/sticks nls and probably keep the cat scrapers in the mix.

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[Silent Bob]

Is everyone just buying worms at the bait store?

Leaving them on paper towel for 24 hours to purge?

Im interested to know people's processes and whether or not the source matters. Not sure what the bait people are feeding their worms or bedding them in and if its ray safe or not.

I did a search on this some time back myself. There are a ton of places to get all different kinds of worms from in bulk. A couple guys even gave reviews on the places they purchased from. Stay clear of the bait store worms.

 

[FLESHY]

Currently my motoro pup gets smelt, market prawns, scallops, and blood worms all chopped up finely mixed up and placed into ice cube trays. I started breaking up some xtreme aquatics cat scrapers and tossing them in the cubes as well. Hopefully she takes to them and will start accepting pellets. Then I'll incorporate kens pellets/sticks nls and probably keep the cat scrapers in the mix.

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I started making my own gel food, its a very good way to get everything you want the ray to eat to eat. Mine will chew on pellets but spits them out. The whole tank loves my gel, which has vitamins, algae, and all the best seafoods to feed your fish. One stop food for me, sounds like it might work well for you as well.

I did a search on this some time back myself. There are a ton of places to get all different kinds of worms from in bulk. A couple guys even gave reviews on the places they purchased from. Stay clear of the bait store worms.

Any notion why you should avoid the baitshops? Even if you can just tell me what you searched for it would be helpful.

 

[Silent Bob]

Give me a little bit to pull up the threads. Currently at work with a busted cnc.:banghead:

 

[Dieselhybrid]

In my experience the easiest way to purge worms is to put them in a container with cold water (RO or distilled). Then add HOT water in very small increments (I like short bursts from the faucet). The worms will freak out and wiggle rapidly, releasing tons of dirt from inside. The hot water will mix with the cold in seconds, so it won't kill the worms as they cool off fast. After about 3 hot water additions a few minutes apart this takes the water up to about room temperature. I then let them soak another 5 minutes then rinse them again as they will have made the water absolutely filthy. They shrink a ton when you do this, makes you realize just how much dirt they have inside of them. If you do it right, with small, short bursts of hot water it won't kill the worms and they will still be active when you put them in the tank and they won't have any dirt left inside. Takes me about 10-15 minutes to full purge them. Sometimes I'll just do one hot water treatment and it gets most of the dirt out of them.

 

[FLESHY]

Give me a little bit to pull up the threads. Currently at work with a busted cnc.:banghead:

No worries man, whenever you have the time. I appreciate it.

In my experience the easiest way to purge worms is to put them in a container with cold water (RO or distilled). Then add HOT water in very small increments (I like short bursts from the faucet). The worms will freak out and wiggle rapidly, releasing tons of dirt from inside. The hot water will mix with the cold in seconds, so it won't kill the worms as they cool off fast. After about 3 hot water additions a few minutes apart this takes the water up to about room temperature. I then let them soak another 5 minutes then rinse them again as they will have made the water absolutely filthy. They shrink a ton when you do this, makes you realize just how much dirt they have inside of them. If you do it right, with small, short bursts of hot water it won't kill the worms and they will still be active when you put them in the tank and they won't have any dirt left inside. Takes me about 10-15 minutes to full purge them. Sometimes I'll just do one hot water treatment and it gets most of the dirt out of them.

Where do you get your worms?

 

[Dieselhybrid]

I get mine from a local bait shop my buddy owns. I've seen cheaper bulk deals online, but this place is local abd supports a family friend.

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