Black diamond possibly sick??

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B

Brandon Beck

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 20, 2025
24
17
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Medicine Hat, AB, Canada
Hey guys, I have a roughly 8" black diamond.. I picked her up 4 months ago at around 6 to 7". She hasn't put size on like id expect. She was eating well. Noticed occasional white stringy poop. She was with my 11" male (not mature).

3 days ago I moved her out of my 470 into a 125 by herself. I was noticing she was sitting in the corners alot and breathing quite fast. Hence why I decided to separate her.

She has definitely stopped eating as much past 2 days only eaten 2 dew worms a day. Very unlike her. She wont touch pellets now or silversides. Barely will eat worms.

I did order some praziquantel it will be here tomorrow. Im wondering if its worth trying some treatment on her. Now that she's by herself I've been watching closely. I have not seen any white poop. Looks normal. Her dark black base has faded back to more grey now.

Water parameters are good. 85 degrees 7.6ph 0ammonia 0nitrite around 20ppm nitrate.

Maybe im overlooking something any input ia greatly appreciated.

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Don’t keep rays but I know ray keepers on mfk have used the praziquantel for white stringy poop with rays. Along with good water quality. If the poop is back to normal then consider retry feeding and holding off on prazipro for now.
 
just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. I would lower the temp to 82 degrees. Unless you have alot of surface agitation and power heads moving the water the oxygen might not be as much as you think. This may be a exaggeration but just so you get the point 78 degree water will have 80 percent more oxygen then 85. This may not be a issue with a healthy fish but if stressed it could prove to be taxing. I think rays tend to do better in groups of similar size. If the big one is food aggressive you may need to feed 2-3 times a day instead of one big meal. So she gets some food. I would also try feeding with the lights off and see if that helps or lights off in general for a little bit. Some pups are picky eaters and go off feeding some just get tired of eating the same thing. I would try adding divined tail off shrimp pieces and tilapia in conjunction with the night crawlers and silver sides you are already feeding.
 
Black_Diamond said:
Your water temp is way too high you're stressing out the animals.
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Interesting, I've always kept my rays around 83 to 85 degrees. Been doing it that way for 8 years. I have alot of surface agitation from returns as well as pond air pump feeding the tanks with air.

I ran a course of praziquantel over the past 2 weeks and she is more active and eating way more then she ever has since I've owned her. Safe to say she is healthy and feeding heavily 2 to 3 times a day now :)
 
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