Another sad day in Ray keeping

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jim barry

jim barry

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2006
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Woke up to 5 BD pups this morning, however only one survivor.
I have not been happy with the mother for the past week or so, in fact since my male BD passed away. For some reason the mother had not looked herself and was not eating well, if at all this past week. This was her first pregnancy. I knew she was due anytime soon and put the lack of eating down to this, but i think it was more of a bad first pregnancy. I kick myself for not dividing her but the hybrid gave birth a week or so back with no divider and everything was ok so i did not bother to divide the BD as there is no mature male in the tank to get horny with her now.
I will never know now if the dead pups were a result of a bad pregnancy or could they have been killed since being born? 2 pups looked wrong, 2 looked perfect, none had yolk sacks. The survivor can only be about 3.5" disc.
I will post some pics tonight and hope to god the survivor is ok when i get home from work, he/she is in a floating tub now.
I'm not enjoying this Ray game much lately.
 
Oh no Jim !!! This is terrible news, if it wasn't for bad luck you would have no luck at all at the moment, its really sickening! I feel for you.
Regarding the partition that would have made no difference in this case, those pups arrived dead from what your saying. Last year I put one of my female Pearls behind a partition, she gave birth to 5 huge pups all perfectly formed, they all died in the last stages of birth, all female too.....its the horrid ugly side of this hobby.
So so Sorry for this latest loss Jim, try and keep your chin up, you have done nothing wrong, it happens unfortunately.
 
Thanks for the reasuring words Richard. I'm gutted but almost becoming numb to bad news at the moment. Got the summer cold from hell too so i am not on top my game at all lol. Lets hope the small one survives and then onward and upward i guess.
Its not all bad though, got to take the positives from all this. I have only been doing this seriously for just under 3 years. In the last 10 months i have been lucky enough to have 19 pups of which 5 have not made it (4 of those just this morning).
Thats a 74% success rate on healthy rays coming into the hobby.
This is not the end. I will be back!!
 
jim barry said:
Thanks for the reasuring words Richard. I'm gutted but almost becoming numb to bad news at the moment. Got the summer cold from hell too so i am not on top my game at all lol. Lets hope the small one survives and then onward and upward i guess.
Its not all bad though, got to take the positives from all this. I have only been doing this seriously for just under 3 years. In the last 10 months i have been lucky enough to have 19 pups of which 5 have not made it (4 of those just this morning).
Thats a 74% success rate on healthy rays coming into the hobby.
This is not the end. I will be back!!
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Spoken like a champ Jim. When you tally up the pups to 19 coupled with your percentage of success, it doesn't sound bad at all, by a long shot.
Sadly, so many breeders of a multitude of species experience varried levels of still born and loss of young, for whatever the reasons may be, you just have to look at it like Mother Nature weeding out the week individuals at the start. When my wife had a miscarriage several years ago that's what we both put it down to, the baby wasn't strong enough for whatever ever reason. We now have two delightful, healthy little buggers in our lives. Onward and upward. :)
 
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MHDevelopments said:
Spoken like a champ Jim. When you tally up the pups to 19 coupled with your percentage of success, it doesn't sound bad at all, by a long shot.
Sadly, so many breeders of a multitude of species experience varried levels of still born and loss of young, for whatever the reasons may be, you just have to look at it like Mother Nature weeding out the week individuals at the start. When my wife had a miscarriage several years ago that's what we both put it down to, the baby wasn't strong enough for whatever ever reason. We now have two delightful, healthy little buggers in our lives. Onward and upward. :)
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Thanks for the kind words Mike. Know what you mean about the litle humans in our lives. I have been there too and now have 3 healthy offspring to keep us busy. It's all part of what makes you a stronger person in the long run.
This will not put me off. I am really enjoying my male pup who is not so much of a pup anymore. He is srutting around the tank like he owns the joint lol. Another year and he will be trying on his charm i'm sure!!
 
Wow! So sorry to hear Jim. This hobby does has its ups and downs. Mines been pretty down the past month also. Lost a bunch of pups and also one of my breeder BD. But over the years there's been a lot of joy seeing new pups.
Good luck with the new one.
 
Jimr said:
Wow! So sorry to hear Jim. This hobby does has its ups and downs. Mines been pretty down the past month also. Lost a bunch of pups and also one of my breeder BD. But over the years there's been a lot of joy seeing new pups.
Good luck with the new one.
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Thanks Jim. Yes there are plenty of ups and downs in this hobby, more downs at the moment unfortunately. Although i have 5 other pups to keep me busy and hopefully the survivor from this morning will take the count to 6 pups. Don't want to wish the time away but can't wait for my male BD to mature now!
 
Rough couple of weeks Jim unfortunately these things happen. Don't make it any easier I know but keep going I'm sure things will get better
 
Scary. Any clue how long she was holding for? Can you elaborate more on the eating or lack thereof? I only ask because my female is 140 days today (first pregnancy as well), still solid movement, however some other funky things going on with the whole tank, so if you could elaborate more on how far along she was and what her eating habits were like that would be appreciated. At least you didn't lose her man.
 
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