breathing slowly

[Jez1992]

Also, I am planning on removing the sand as I feel it is to fine. He is always throwing it off, and it gets kicked up in the water column I feel it could be irritating him.

I wouldn't get rid of the sand.
Rays love sand and they are so much more enjoyable to watch with it. The blowing it around is just part of the fun lol

 

[fish nerd 84]

Strangely enough he is breathing a litte better than this morning

 

[fish nerd 84]

Post a video? I have a female that slows respiration when she's stressed. Her activity drops, her food consumption also. Could be a sign of stress, could just be "chillin"

 

[CANAMONSTER]

If the ray eats don't look at anything else brother. Just enjoy

 

[fish nerd 84]

Thanks for the help guys I did a water test and my nitrates are high everything else seemed fine. A good water change and me not overreacting seems all that’s needed. I just fed him and he is still pouncing on food.

 

[Just Toby]

Lovely looking ray. Glad all seems to be fine. Check the Nitrate in the tap water too as mine is 25ppm out the tap. When you say high I imagine it was off the chart at 100ppm+, keep an eye on it as it can be hard to get it down. The tank is not all that large in volume of water and Rays produce about 3 times the ammonia as most other fish so when they defecate it can have a big effect on the water, the fact you are producing a lot of nitrate is good as it means you have effective filtering but the time it takes to convert the ammonia spike can be crucial. It is also worth growing Pothos (devils Ivy) on the tank lid with the roots in the water as these are great when Nitrate is really high, I have found that they don't do as much at under 50ppm but over that they grow like mad which strips the nitrate out of the water.

 

[fish nerd 84]

Lovely looking ray. Glad all seems to be fine. Check the Nitrate in the tap water too as mine is 25ppm out the tap. When you say high I imagine it was off the chart at 100ppm+, keep an eye on it as it can be hard to get it down. The tank is not all that large in volume of water and Rays produce about 3 times the ammonia as most other fish so when they defecate it can have a big effect on the water, the fact you are producing a lot of nitrate is good as it means you have effective filtering but the time it takes to convert the ammonia spike can be crucial. It is also worth growing Pothos (devils Ivy) on the tank lid with the roots in the water as these are great when Nitrate is really high, I have found that they don't do as much at under 50ppm but over that they grow like mad which strips the nitrate out of the water.

Thanks I will have to look into pothos plants. I would need to find some where to place them so that my red hook silver dollars don’t eat all the roots.

 

[CANAMONSTER]

Lovely looking ray. Glad all seems to be fine. Check the Nitrate in the tap water too as mine is 25ppm out the tap. When you say high I imagine it was off the chart at 100ppm+, keep an eye on it as it can be hard to get it down. The tank is not all that large in volume of water and Rays produce about 3 times the ammonia as most other fish so when they defecate it can have a big effect on the water, the fact you are producing a lot of nitrate is good as it means you have effective filtering but the time it takes to convert the ammonia spike can be crucial. It is also worth growing Pothos (devils Ivy) on the tank lid with the roots in the water as these are great when Nitrate is really high, I have found that they don't do as much at under 50ppm but over that they grow like mad which strips the nitrate out of the water.

Im curious of the pothos, I would think how much nitrates rays produce that you would need alot of pothos to even make a dent. How much pothos to reduce a substantial amount of nitrates do you need?

 

[Boomer1224]

glad everything is ok

 

[Just Toby]

Im curious of the pothos, I would think how much nitrates rays produce that you would need alot of pothos to even make a dent. How much pothos to reduce a substantial amount of nitrates do you need?

There are some old threads on here where people posted up their test results. I think when the tank is above 100ppm pothos goes mad, you can see new leaves per day. I used 2 sprouts and now I have probably 200 leaves across the top of the tank.

Every little bit helps. People were claiming over 20ppm drops quite quickly.