First off..... I apologize for my short nature. I am having a hard time swollowing this happening to my most beloved rays, the ones that mean the most to me. I'd much rather be going through this with my blackies then Marbles I've been waiting several years for the chance to see movement on thier backs...... I don't mean to be short in regards to some of these questions but like I've said, this is round 3 for me and desperately want a different outcome then the first 2 times.
Would like opinions on a few things.......
Forehead dents- When a single ray in the tank develops a dent yet continues to eat, and the other rays appear unaffected appetite wise IS it safe to assume there is some sort of parasite involved? I've watched stressed rays starve for periods of time without dents. I've also seen rays develope dents in what seems like a matter of days. This is why I have typically associated dents with something bad going on IN the ray rather then just the rays surroundings.
The fact that some can be so affected and the others not be is beyond puzzling. Just wierd that I had the Discus in there for so long then within days of the smaller of the 2 new rays passing I have longterm rays appearing to be infected.
Some history- The rays in this tank are established. My prized female has been with me for 3+ years. She has began eating crawlers a few days ago. She is showing signs if improvement appetite wise but still looks like hell. Eyes seem hazy and the bridge between the eyes and spiracles seems pasty and whitish. Perimeter of disk greyish. The light based girl has been with me for years as well. She quit eating about a week ago. Nibbled crawlers after cleaning the filter, but has since stopped alltogether and will run from fresh cut crawlers. Both have been in this tank since I moved in roughly one year ago. The 3rd ray in there is a new one. She came in with the one that passed immediately. This girl has not quit eating the entire time. It took her 3 days to start eating but she has not quit yet. She appears 100% unaffected. No discoloration and appetite is decent. The male that passed was a CB that I had bred. He was born roughly a year and a half ago and was moved into the juvie tank about 6 months ago
. The male Pearl was moved upon me arriving home. He had been pestering the crap out of the ladies. I figured added stress at this point was not an option. I thought this whole situation might have been strickly stress related so not much thought was put into moving him. Unfortunately he may be the reason I have rays in my 750 not eating now. He was moved into the juvie tank about 2 months ago when I aquired him from Kolossus. He seemed to have a bit of a rocky start. Took several weeks for him to start eating well (really swelling up at feedings).
I believe this system had more then adequate filtration given the size of rays. I dripped prolly close to 100 gallons a day into this tank.
I believe in keeping clean filters. Some say cleaning is not necassary but a simple search or just being around over the years will quickly guide you to a bunch of threads just like this. Filters get overwhelmed by crud buildup and boom bacterial outbreak. Most of the time several rays are lost before the root cause is found. I was quick to clean my filter as I knew that had to contribute to it, I also knew I had plenty of good bio that I could add back to the clean filter. By clean I mean removing all bio and rinsing it in tank water. For this very reason I designed my 750's filtration to utilize bio reactors as there should NEVER be any concerns of overwhelming crud in the filter like we HAVE to worry about in wet/dries or submerged bio.
I use 200/100 micron mcmaster filters. 7x15s. The 750 uses 4 and the juvie tank uses 2. These are washed 2-4 times a month.
This will be the 3rd time I've had rays act up resulting in losses that were NOT able to be rectified by W/Cs, Prazi, Binox or anything else I've tried. I still to this day believe the last round was Nematodes, but have no way of proving it. Prazi did nothing. The ray lived with a dent for a couple months while it nibbled crawlers here and there. The 1st time was all on me. Didn't know what I was doing filtration or stress level wise. The second time I still b elieve could have been avoided but nothing seemed to phase it. I feel as though I have the same thing going on again, and can't help but feel that the typical clean water regimine will end the same as it did last time with a ray suffering for too long thewn eventually checking out.
Let's take a trip down memory lane....... Wasn't long ago T1 had trouble with his P14s. Everyone preached clean water and Prazi. These were tried and did nothing. Within 24 hours of a Tremazol treatment they were on the rebound. My question is what would have happened without the Tremazol?
Seems we have a VERY difficult time as hobbyists to decide if we need to be patient with what we are doing and just wait it out OR if what we are doing isn't helping and real action is needed. This is exactly where I am at. A week ago I knew something was wrong. I have cleaned, ran drip wide open, Prazi'd, salted and bumped temp. The 2 rays that mean the word to me still look like hell. The newbie looks gorgeous. Not even pale. Could this be due to the fact the Pearl was trying to breed them and the newbie was divided off? Makes sense, BUT doesn't explain the 3 rays in the 750 with no appetite. 2 of them beginning to discolor.
Enough rambling. I'd like to know when do you know when to take the next step?
I appreciate the input and am glad to be sharing this with people that can relate and understand. For this I'm very greatfull.
