Albino Pearl husbandry

[jim barry]

Hi all

Reaching out to any owners of the Bino for views and opinions on keeping them.
Do you find them to be a robust ray?
What do they feed like, are they fussy feeders?

I have kept BD, normal Pearl and Hens etc and all have been like bullets unless ill and all eat very well including pellet. I have just recently acquired a male bino at 8" and was scarily thin. He doesn't eat well and has ended up in a floating tub. Slowly gotten worse over a 3 week period to the point he will only eat earth worms now. Gained a little weight but I am not happy with his progress.
I have heard they can be more sensitive to standard rays.
Thoughts please people. For info, the tank has now been treated twice for parasites.

 

[Matteus]

Hi Jim. I just recently bumped my thread - her hips don’t lie. Hopefully to save you some time- I would hit him with neoplex- seachem version of neomyacin. I only treated for the box size rather than the whole tank.

all three of my bino pearls are very aggressive eaters. They hit the food hard, they double back as soon as a pellet touches their disc. Even more aggressive with smelts or shrimp. It is not normal for them to be sluggish toward food. That was my experience even with my last pearl.

I may not have many years experience like others but I do pay close attention to the ones I do have so I know what is typical or not.

they are always rummaging around looking for food, hardly ever hide and pounce on food fast.

 

[jim barry]

Thanks for this mate. I just came back to you on your thread.
Do you feel using this stuff was the answer then?
How did you treat just the box and not the entire tank?
Surely the box has the tanks water flowing into it?
Little confused on that bit of the story.
Thanks

 

[Matteus]

The box has flow yes but it still holds water, somewhat stagnant.

I did a rough estimate that the box was about 4-5 gal, so I would put 6-8 gal worth of treatment into the box. Then I would add shrimp or worms right after in the same spot so she would not be on an empty stomach. Often I would put the food right on top of the antibiotic hoping she would ingest some of it. Thinking back I suppose I could have just added it to her food.

 

[jim barry]

Ok thanks for getting back to me, if things persist for me I may give this a go.
How did your other rays get on with the treatment? Were they ok?
Do you run UV and if so did you turn it off for treatment?
Thanks

 

[Matteus]

All the other fish were fine with the treatment. I did turn off the uv during treatment.
I think I was doing 30-50% wc every 2-3 days as well just to make sure water quality was spot on. If you are on a drip that shouldn’t be an issue tho

 

[Matteus]

To me it kind of makes sense that the binos would be more susceptible to sickness and disease. Because of gene mutation or whatever it is that would cause them to be albino. It also makes sense that they would be sensitive to lighting. It’s kind of the downside of it all, but I still like the albino trait and look, always have since I was a kid.

when I had her in the box, I moved my light off to the side so it wasn’t shining right into her box, and I also have a big piece of driftwood in the tank to create a darker spot to shield them from the bright lights. I think it was more important in the initial acclimation to the tank than anything because now they roam around seemingly unaffected by the lights. But in the beginning they would hide out in the darker areas that I provided.

 

[jim barry]

Thanks for taking the time to respond mate. I too have had the light off to one side for the past month and its only a blue light.
I have had responses on FB that mainly say Pearl Bino are bullet proof. I breed standard Pearl and find that even these are more skittish than the BD I breed so I am not so sure.
Anyway, I think we turned a corner last night. For the past week he has been taking mainly earthworm cut up and soaked with pellets, but last night I tried a mussel and he devoured it. No chewing and spitting. He ate as a ray should do.
I am fairly confident I have cracked this ray now.

 

[Matteus]

Very good to hear. It didn’t sound like yours was as extreme as the one I had, so hopefully he comes through starting now. Look forward to seeing some pics later on once he gets settled