3 month old motoro just purchased. Will not eat.

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DSM_Zak

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 22, 2010
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Mill Creek, WA
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Well my last ray (rectic) I lost him. One morning he was fine, went to work, came home, he was dead.

I found another local pet store with 3, 3 month old motoro pups. Mom gave birth to three, she died as two large males stressed her after birth. Mom was larger 24+ inches in a 4'x5' 450g tank.

So I picked up a male, and since hes been in the tank for two days now, I cant seem to get him to eat. The owner, who is a very nice guy, said they were all eating and eating pellets. I purchased some pellets, and as well as some live bloodworms as my rectic loved them.

I have read they also love nightcrawlers, so I picked some of those up as well.

I've tried pellets, he doesn't eat them.
Put in some chopped up nightcrawlers, doesnt touch them.
live bloodworms I think Ive seen him eat a very small amount (im putting in 1tsp of live bloodworms).

I lost my first ray to starvation, and I'm definitly seeing his hip bones as I did on my first one. I'm trying to fatten this guy up but would like some pointers.

Water parameters are spot on with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate/nitrite, and about 7.8-8.0pH.

He has now been raising his front part of his disc as if hes trying to breathe, and seems to sometimes breathe out of rhythm? He was very active when I got home, swimming laps around the tank, the most active Ive seen him since I got him, but shortly after started doing this raising of the front disc, stationary. While hes doing this I do notice his "feet" pointing back a little as if hes almost pushing, he will do this for a bit, relax, move a little, and stop and do it again.

Some help would be much appreciated as I'm hoping to have better luck with my motoro. Thanks in advance.
 
What's the temp? I'm now learning to buy fish watching the owner feed the fish before buying. I don't think I've ever heard a LFS owner or a seller tell me the truth " oh it's stressed and sick, won't eat and eventually die, you loose $$, sorry" jokes aside.
turn temp up between 75-80, lights off most of the time. Live blackworms, small live night crawlers (without chopping them up) good luck.
 
Nitrate should not be zero if that is the true reading you may have some cycling issues

I would monitor the water very closely. Are you using liquid test kit or strips?

What size tank? what type of filtration? how long has it been set up?

What substrate are you using? If sand how deep of a bed?

Any tankmates? If yes are they behaving normally?

Sorry if some of my questions seem silly. If I don't ask we don't know for sure what you are dealing with
 
Personally i think its just stressed out and getting used to the new environment. give it some time! u said it was swimming around and suddenly stopped when u came by? my always does that too. whenever i come home from work and open the door, i wld see it swimming around but instantly it wld stop and lay still when it "sees" me haha! all shld be fine, just give it this week to see whether it eats. any tank mates?
 
X2 it's just getting use to it's new home if ur rlly worried go et some earthworms cut them up and leave them with her for an hour and check if she took any .earthworms = 1 of rays fav foods. Shell com around gl
 
Im also concerned about the LFS you bought from, he said they were feeding nice on pellets, but still the hip bones are visible? Seems like trick and threat to me.. And as said before Nitrate shouldnt be zero, around 25-50 is alot more common if you dont have drip\automatic waterchange.
 
I am wondering is the PH too high?
I have read that it should be between 6-7.5 and should be maintained under 7. I don't yet have personal experience about keeping rays. But my guess is that your PH is too high.
 
Rays can live any a wide range of PH as long as you keep it consistant. DO another test of the water params and be honest with your results if you want us to help ya. even .25 ammonia is to much ammonia for a stingray, and if you are reading 0 nitrates, then, A. your tank is not cycled B. you think 0 nitrate is what we want to hear and telling us that when nitrate should be 25-50 like the above, or C. you never did a test and your just telling us everything is 0.

not trying to be a harda$$ on ya, but if your retic died, and now you're having problems with a motoro, then you should/need to get a test kit which is not test strips, and you need to research research research. read all the stickys, and read a bunch of posts on here....

whats your tankmates in there with the ray, and what filtration are you using? what SIZE tank is it?
 
the nitrate was a typo as I re-read my post, ill retest again tonight, last night it was at 20ppm, the tank size if a 4'x2' and 10" tall. He will be in there until I find a 180gal, I've been searching craigslist and ebay for a decent priced one, but they're hard to come by. My girlfriend just went home for lunch and says he doesn't look good, so ill test again tonight.

As far as cycling, the tank was just drained and cleaned, new filters/carbon/instant aquarium sand substrate, so essentially a new aquarium, but the substrate with additives says you can add fish immediatly, I waited a day, however.
 
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