Stingray breathing heavy! Not eating.

DanHOB

Plecostomus
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Nov 13, 2017
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Evening!

I have a hybrid ray we’ve had him for around 8months now. Hasn’t shown growth rate like my others, I have 2 bds and pearl ray with Malaysian blue base arowana.
He’s been breathing heavy since last Sunday, didn’t eat for 2 days we sectioned him off to relieve any stress he may have encountered from other rays or Aro, although none witnessed thought was best for him, he Then ate a worm (I cheered!) and continued to eat Hikari carnivore pellets for a few days, not as much as he usually does but thought it was a good sign. Now no food for a few days and no interest in food whatsoever.

Tank is 300 gallons
Ph did drop to around 6.2 which in essence made our filtration stop doing its job, we added crushed coral to bring up above the 6.5 mark n is now at 7.5.
We have 2x fx6 temp 28 degrees C
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5

We do around 10% daily water changes, when he didn’t eat and started breathing heavy we upped it to 40% over a few days and are now around the 30% a day mark.
Started him on Seachem Paraguard yesterday and just had his 2nd dose.

Don’t want to lose this little guy. He’s amazing.any help, advice appreciated.

Thanks!
 

Tedd

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 13, 2017
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High water temp and lack of oxygen can cause hard breathing in most cases but your current situation seems to be an internal problem maybe caused by live foods.proper dosage of prazipro should solve the issue. If too weak to eat then i would recommend gently force feeding lil bits of preferred soft food , again emphasized"lil bites at a time". Make sure swallows and not spit.the stinger shouldn't be a prob with pups ,especially if you corkscrew or tape the tail section and handle with care.just my 2 cents, but hey I'm just a newb
 

DanHOB

Plecostomus
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Nov 13, 2017
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High water temp and lack of oxygen can cause hard breathing in most cases but your current situation seems to be an internal problem maybe caused by live foods.proper dosage of prazipro should solve the issue. If too weak to eat then i would recommend gently force feeding lil bits of preferred soft food , again emphasized"lil bites at a time". Make sure swallows and not spit.the stinger shouldn't be a prob with pups ,especially if you corkscrew or tape the tail section and handle with care.just my 2 cents, but hey I'm just a newb
Thanks for input! We don’t feed them worms usually we just tried it cos he hadn’t eaten in a few days. We also gut load our worms and tiny crickets with pellets a veg for arowana as he only will eat live food.
Their diet is usually, a mixture of tiger prawns, squid, silversides, krill and bloodworms and Hikari pellets. Fed between 3-4 times a day.

Waiting on Prazi to be delivered, they don’t sell it here in uk so I have had to have it sent from US.
I see that’s widely used in states with rays so thought I’d try. I just hope he is alive when it get here.
 

Tedd

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 13, 2017
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Should be all good mos likely as long as the rib cage and skiny buttocks is not severely visible.in other words, as long as not looking super cracked out. Just watch out for signs of death curl, which is fatal
 

Tedd

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 13, 2017
6
1
3
Good luck to both y'all, best wishes.
Hoping for a speedy delivery and recovery
 
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DanHOB

Plecostomus
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Nov 13, 2017
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So day 4 of treating with paraguard, no change n he’s still not eaten a thing.
He just pooped white with a bit of brown in it.
Here’s a pic of him and poop, lights not on in tank to reduce his stress

E6AAA8AF-8A74-41A1-A690-B789BE1F5474.jpeg

E272F7F9-F2EB-4E24-BA11-D366B5BAB33B.jpeg
 

tarheel96

Polypterus
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Feb 2, 2015
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Paraguard or Prazipro? I don't keep rays but I seriously doubt that Paraguard will help if it's an intestinal problem like worms/parasites. I believe praziquantel and levamisole would be the go to drugs for that.

J Just Toby keeps rays in the UK. He would know more.
 

DanHOB

Plecostomus
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Nov 13, 2017
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Essex
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Paraguard or Prazipro? I don't keep rays but I seriously doubt that Paraguard will help if it's an intestinal problem like worms/parasites. I believe praziquantel and levamisole would be the go to drugs for that.

J Just Toby keeps rays in the UK. He would know more.
Thanks for reply.
They don’t sell prazi here so have ordered some from states, not sure if my lil mate will still be here by time it arrives.

Paraguard is by Seachem widely available here. And was advised by them (Seachem) to use it.

I’ll check out what you recommend!
 
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