Am I feeding enough?

[Jesseliu13]

I got a 15-18 inch marbled Motoro Female. She is alone right now and has a bad attitude. she tackles the glass whenever i come by and tear'd up her tankmates (not stingrays). she is also an extremely picky eater. she started to stop accepting swai and squid. eats tilapia but very slowly. She does however like smelt/anchovies. I will be leaving This coming sunday for a week so i want to make sure she is well fed before i leave. But currently i am only feeding about 1-2 large smelts a day. the smelts are gutted so i put about 3-4 massivore pellets in the organ cavity (she isnt pellet trained, but i can still trick her lol). Each massivore pellet claims that they have the calories of 1.8 goldfishs. assuming i only feed once a day with a smelt with only 3 massivore pellets. thats about 5.4 goldfishes. Is this enough? i am prepping her for breeding but my i have no males right now. but currently my main concern is her weight. ever since she stop accepting other foods she isnt as plump anymore. she isnt skinny but you can still notice her 2 back bones points. any recommendations?

 

[rlane]

You need to feed her more, rays have very fast metabolisms and can eat large meals multiple times a day. I am feeding my rays each morning and evening and my pregnant ray who is separated I will feed 4-5 times a day.

Your ray does seem picky, but you can over come that with time. if you can see her bones at the base of her tail you need her to put on some serious weight quickly. Go outside and dig up some earthworms, no healthy ray is going to turn those down and the good news is they are packed with nutrition and protein for her to put on some weight. Feed her as much as you can between now and when you go away, and then when she is gone, she should be fine, and when you get back she may accept some of the other foods with more gusto. I would also try to work in some market shrimp, rays love them as well. Stuffing the food with pellets is a great idea as well.

 

[MEDHBSI]

Did you pick her up from a shop? Was she wild caught? If so make sure to use a treatment or 2 for any parasites she might have brought along with her. I usually give my rays chopped up raw de shelled prawn, carnivor sinking pellets (they love those and hate massivor) also black worms for a treat as there not readily available in my area. When I first get a ray that is young or skinny I feed 5 times a day as much as they will eat in 5 minutes.