problems!! calling all ray owners!! i need help. i'm slowly loosing my rays!

[oldfish]

I think you may have a couple of things working together. First of all you should have a quarantine tank that is not hooked up to your main system for new fish. That being said my guess of your secondary problems may be this. If you had a drip system that you turned down or off to medicate, than your filtration was unable to handle all the ammonia,This caused an ammonia spike which caused stress to all the rays. Then when you turned it back on the prazi was deluded and the old rays were weakened and the flukes could then take hold.

 

[keepinfish]

I think you may have a couple of things working together. First of all you should have a quarantine tank that is not hooked up to your main system for new fish. That being said my guess of your secondary problems may be this. If you had a drip system that you turned down or off to medicate, than your filtration was unable to handle all the ammonia,This caused an ammonia spike which caused stress to all the rays. Then when you turned it back on the prazi was deluded and the old rays were weakened and the flukes could then take hold.

i know, im kicking myself for trusting a captive bred ray and not qt'ing him. but cant change that now.
i turn my drip off from time to time, and never had an issue. but i do think these flukes are the problem, and i think i killed some off, and they hatched or came back.

Things can happen very quickly overnight. Just because the numbers on a test kit indicate 0 at the moment does not mean it was at 0, three days previous. Sometimes rays feel the stress/effects of water quality change after the fact and not right away. Do you keep a pH monitor on the system? If so have you seen any fluctuation in the last few weeks?
Something else may be to blame here, for the lesions and such. However, I think sliding spots is a very good indication of water quality issue.

thanks for yalls help. it is not water quality.. another member got a ray from the same batch and he is fighting flukes too. but i questioned whether it was or wasnt as well, but what are the chances we both having issues?


thanks all i appreciate all the ideas!, tank is now treated with prazi again.... he is still eating so that is good. i may be wishful thinking but i think he already looked better this morning after 24 hours of treatment.

 

[DB junkie]

I'm pretty sure if you read up on Flukes and their life cycle then it's clear why it takes so long to treat. Most people do a treatment and call it good but I think (IIRC) life cycle is 3-4 weeks - the reason treatment must go on for so long. 1 treatment may knock off enough of the adult flukes for the rays to battle the rest off and appear better but more Flukes will come when the eegs hatch.

Have also heard that IF dosing here and there and the treatment isn't carried out long enough and they survive they can also build an immunity to the meds and eventually become resistant. So if you don't kill them entirely they come back stronger.

Best of luck Keep hopefully it's under control already......

 

[keepinfish]

So best according to label is treat for 5-7 days then repeat after a few days. To kill all stages.

 

[spotfin]

Bummer. Hope they continue to make a turn for the better.

 

[wmkr]

hope they can recover

 

[KNH]

Have you discussed flukes or other possibilities with the seller? Maybe he can shed some light on the situation as you said another Ray from the same batch was having the issue as well. Best of luck to you

 

[jim barry]

Jim I know aquaman helped you out, but can you describe what was going in?

Hi mate

With mine it was very obviously gill flukes, although I didn't know this at the time as I have never experienced it before.
The ray was breathing out of one gill set only and coughing every minute or so and not eating. Treated with Fluke solve which is a version of prazi available in the UK. Everything improved within 48 hours then rapidly improved over the next 5 days to the point she started eating again. She was then released back with the other rays and no issues with her since. Although one of my other females has stopped eating now but this is due to breeding stress and she is torn up pretty badly. She is divided for now.
This probably won't help you at all though, hope you get things sorted ok mate. All I can offer is try to eliminate stress, no lights etc and keep up the water changes, assuming your incoming water is okay?

 

[keepinfish]

Hi mate

With mine it was very obviously gill flukes, although I didn't know this at the time as I have never experienced it before.
The ray was breathing out of one gill set only and coughing every minute or so and not eating. Treated with Fluke solve which is a version of prazi available in the UK. Everything improved within 48 hours then rapidly improved over the next 5 days to the point she started eating again. She was then released back with the other rays and no issues with her since. Although one of my other females has stopped eating now but this is due to breeding stress and she is torn up pretty badly. She is divided for now.
This probably won't help you at all though, hope you get things sorted ok mate. All I can offer is try to eliminate stress, no lights etc and keep up the water changes, assuming your incoming water is okay?

thanks Jim, that is the information i was looking for.

 

[jim barry]

thanks Jim, that is the information i was looking for.

As someone else has just said. The first treatment for flukes kills the ones on the fish. BUT it is extremely important to retreat the tank after 3 weeks to kill off any eggs that can hatch.
This is what I was told to do and I followed it to the letter.
First treatment to go in for 4 days, no water changes and turn UV off for this period.
Then water change and UV as normal after this.
After 3 weeks exactly repeat the process.
Second dose into tank for 4 days, no water changes or UV for this period.
Then back to normal.
I also reduced feeding for each 4 day period due to no water changes.