Amorous male Leo stung by Mrs Leo

[Cool Mart]

Since the birth of the pups my male has been chasing the female around in an attempt to mate again. He hasn't done much damage just a few nibbles so I've left them together. It now seems the female grew annoyed by his advances and has stung him several times.

One stab mark is an inch from the edge of the disc and shouldn't be a problem. The other one seems to have happened after the male swam into her unsheathed blade and cut him near his gills on the underside.

He's breathing heavily, arching his tail upwards and swimming erratically - it doesn't look to good at the moment. I've turned the lights out to try and calm things, is there anything else I should be doing ?

Bitter sweet weekend really, what with the birth of four fantastic Leo pups and now this !

ANyone else have experience of 'stabbed' rays ?

Thanks in advance

Martin

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Is the barb stuck in the ray?

I would separate them for awhile....

 

[carolines100]

Same thing with me i add to split them in end my female stung male twice and he made a mess of her disc . I salted tanks and up the temp both rays doing well now . Put a devide in and give them both a time out if i was u

 

[Cool Mart]

Nope, barb is still on the female.

Separating them will be difficult and stressful (to me and the rays) and to tell the truth the female is just glad to be ignored and is just recovering from 3 days of being chased, she's just resting at one end of the tank.

The male is at the other end of the tank looking poorly.

 

[carolines100]

My male did same bolted to other side of tank heavy breathing for about 15 20 mins then he was all over her again didnt learn. I would try to come up with a idea to divide them to give them both a time out and in the meen while add a little salt and cross fingers hes ok

 

[aquaman45]

Hi Martin,
usually as long as the barb doesnt enter the main organs(Stomach area) then they usually recover,i once had a Yepezi stick its barb into anothers muscle tissue,it bled quite badly but soon stopped,it made a full recovery.
Hope it all ends well,im sure it will.

 

[rayrayray]

Martin i too have had this hapen,the male did breath very heavey for an hr or so then he made a full recovery.i hope yours will be also.

 

[Juxtaroberto]

Just put a big piece of egg crate down the middle of the tank. I would recommend you separate them all the time from here on after she gives birth, so that he doesn't immediately impregnate her again after birth. Rays need time to recover and replenish their nutrients, which go into the development of the baby rays.

I've heard rays are immune to ray toxins, so the ray should be fine as long as nothing major was pierced.

 

[xdragonxb0i]

that poontang must of been nice. lmao

 

[Cool Mart]

that poontang must of been nice. lmao

Thanks for that, just what I needed - someone making light of a very worrying situation

To the other guys who have posted helpful and sympathetic advice - thanks.


The heavy breathing doesn't worry me, it's the arching of the tail and twitching of the whole body that does. Been going an hour now and he still seems to be in pain.

These are big destructive rays, anything that's used to separate them will have to be carefully thought out. There can't be any risk of a barrier flexing under pressure and trapping a ray and it will need to be fixed top and bottom - it's not an easy or quick job unfortunately.