any body feeing live feeder fish to rays

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calgaryflames

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Nov 10, 2009
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calgary
do any of you guys still feed feeder gold fish to you rays tanks.

i rescued a massive payara im keeping it in my larger ray tank and its real hard to trick this fish.

i used to feed my rays feeders for years until i discoverd forums and herd all the stories.i never had issues before.

many people are against feeders i know!..... but i would like to hear the other side, who feeds them and if they do anything special.i will quarantine them but is their any real concerns if the feeders are healthy ????
 
unless you are quarantining them for like a month and treating them for parasites you are playing with fire IMO

You should be able to trick the payara into eating smelt or shrimp pretty easy
 
feeder goldfish are notorious for disease and parasites. they are also high in thiamanese, which is an enzyme that blocks the uptake of the b1 (if i recall correctly) vitamin. this B vitamin is essential for keeping HITH away. not sure if HITH is a worry with rays at all, but i know my oscar and paratilapia polleni will never eat a feeder goldie in there lives!

even quarantining for a month for feeders would be risky, as some parasites don't show up in that short a time frame (think callamanus).
 
calgaryflames said:
Why am i playing with fire?
Click to expand...
Ahhh !!! you won't have a problem if they get a few you obviously are not going to change the diet completly people get a little to crazy bout the disease thing IMO Personally believe disease and parasites are always present the immune system of the fish what counts for sure ...
 
BigFishMommy said:
feeder goldfish are notorious for disease and parasites. they are also high in thiamanese, which is an enzyme that blocks the uptake of the b1 (if i recall correctly) vitamin. this B vitamin is essential for keeping HITH away. not sure if HITH is a worry with rays at all, but i know my oscar and paratilapia polleni will never eat a feeder goldie in there lives!

even quarantining for a month for feeders would be risky, as some parasites don't show up in that short a time frame (think callamanus).
Click to expand...

i was also gonna pitch in with this. feeding them goldfish can also bring about liver diseases. best to not feed them goldfish.
 
I work in a LFS and trust me diseased feeders are not a myth. They frequently come in with lice and certain times of the year they have some nasty fungus going on.

When dealing with hundreds or even thousands of dollars of rays I wouldn't put a feeder fish from a lfs within 10' of the tank.

I dont think a few feeder fish being such a small of a part of their diet would affect their health though.
 
ok my rays are not aloud to eat the feeders.im just dropping one at a time near the armatus so he can it it. and no its not easy to train to eat dead fish.

hulon is 100% correct! you will never eliminate parasites and rays dont really get fish sicknesses.

im just trying to trick the armatus slowing into eating smelts off my fishing rod.i have the hook with weight but the hook its cutt off.i tried to put a smelt on the end of it and wiggle it around.he reacted to it but wouldnt bite it.he nipped and that was it.i got some feeders today.i dropped in one he pounded it down instant.the second i injured and it did not even want it because it probably looked like the smelt i presented him with earlier. my issue is i cant get the armatus to eat frozen or pellets.i rescued it from a local hobbiest he bought it and didnt realize it would get this big.he told me it was 18" i thought it would be ok for my 300 gallon.when i got their it was more like 23"
i really want to make it work with the rays.i dont think the sicknesses that common gold fish can really harm the rays.unless its parasites or anchor worms.

im going to treat the gold fish with flubendazole for 4-5 days that should wipe out any parasite. besides that i dont think they have any sort of bacterial problem and all my rays are healthy and will not even be touching them.

you guys also got to realize that when you bring in rays from the wild most of them will only take live feeders.

but i still like to hear all your input thanks guys
 
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