Couple of quick Q's?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
N

NEistingray

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 21, 2011
46
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UK
Hi fella's last week my ray shed its first barb (at least the first one since I've had him) however I cannot for the life of me find the thing, a few days after I realised a lot of white stuff a bit bigger than a grain of sand on the substrate, is it possible that the barb was sucked up and cut up by the impeller and is working my way through the system? Or is this simply not possible?

I know that pleco's with a ray is a no no however I'm having serious difficulty in sorting out the algae on my tank, it's getting so bad now! If I was to add a small 1-2" plec is there much chance he could do damage to the ray, not concerned about the ray eating the plec just want to stay on top of the glass cleaning!

Thanks all!
 
I can't answer your first few questions.

As to the whether to add the pleco or not, I would like to know first what do you think is the cause of your algae problem?
 
ihaveRedHotChunkyPoopers! said:
I can't answer your first few questions.

As to the whether to add the pleco or not, I would like to know first what do you think is the cause of your algae problem?
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Hi mate thanks for the reply unfortunately the tank is at the total mercy of sunlight for around 8 hours a day so as you can imagine is a pain, the parents won't allow me to put up a black out blind or something to block the sunlight so there's not much I can do to prevent it!
 
Very much doubt the barb would've been chopped up by an impeller. I'd imagine about a 1000-to-1 chance - they're pretty solid, unlikely to lift off the floor of the tank, and probably more likely to just wedge in an impeller than be chopped up. Course in an infinite universe anything could be possible.

Pleco that small will be lunch. Bigger pleco can be problematic. Then too, plecos don't necessarily always "clean" where you want them to.

Is the sunlight coming from behind the tank? If so, paint the back wall of the tank. If not, you could consider putting a blanket over the front glass if you're out during the day anyway. If neither of those are an option, maybe some plants poking their roots into the tank could help - Pothos is a common choice and if you have that much sunlight anyway it would probably grow quite well. I grow a lil' Pothos into one of my ray tanks and it grows even though it's in a gloomy basement.
 
I'm glad to be of some help. :)

So I assume you have an algae bloom then(green water)? I would suggest anything to cover the back of your tank(background) or whichever side that's exposed to the sun. I don't think the plecos are really necessary nor would they fix the problem. It will be mostly your work to scrape off the algae and change the water.
 
Thanks for the replies you two, I thought it would be a slim chance that would happen to the barb as I thought it would simply sink but can't find the bloody thing! The sunlight comes basically straight onto the front of the tank so the blanket might be my best choice! And regarding the green water I don't actually, I assume this could potentially be due to the small UV that is on one of my filters?
 
Sometimes barbs from my rays will get "lost" in the sand only to appear days or weeks later. I just net them out when ever they show up.
 
I have 2 maybe 3 barbs somewhere in my tank lol.... pretty sure they are under my tiled tank bottom tho... just keep up on cleaning the algae off the tank...thats what i do
 
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