Another sick ray thread........

[DB junkie]

Original plan was to get the thing eating, then treat for parasites. Well a week in he killed an Armatus. For fear of losing any more Armatus he went to the pond... Saw him eat for a few days but then started refusing food. After a little over a week of not eating I knew something was wrong. Moved to a qt 125. Been doing 30-50% waterchanges every 12 hours since Sun. morning. Have added salt (at carton recomended dosage) and raised temp to 86-87. Refusing all food including ghost shrimp. Asking for help cause he seems to be worsening quickly. I thought I could handle the situation but apparently I don't know what I'm doing....... I imagine that I don't even think about Prazi till he starts eating again....IF he ever does. What about mela/pima?? Have heard mixxed reviews. Any help is greatly appreciated and thanks in advance. P.S. what a kick in the balls.....Kills an Armatus then turns around and is trying to die on me........ This is gonna change my opinion on a lot of things..........

 

[csx4236]

wild import? Whats your water parameters? temp, ph etc. I would add lots of salt and get temp to 84. If he keeps refusing food don't feed for a full day and try again. Did you try any type of worms to get him eating something? also why so much waterchanges? howmany other fish are in there?

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

^ ditto ^

What have you been trying to feed? Since he went after your arm have you tried quarnt. feeders yet?

 

[DB junkie]

Yes wild import. The thing was feeding great up to the Armatus incident.... Nightcrawlers, shrimp, and scallops. Was actually gaining weight. The temp this morning was 86. Ph I haven't checked. Assuming just like every other tank in my house it's going to be 7.8-8.0. I will double check at lunch time. Nothing is in with him. The tank did have a Fahaka in it before I moved stuff around. I left 2 filters on the tank...... Figured they were probobly kinda cruddy being the puffer was in there so I cleaned 1 of them. I moved a filter off the Ray/Armatus tank to make up for the cleaned one. Waterchanges were a lot the first day cause of the filter cleaning. The last 3 waterchanges have only been 1/3. Figured once the tank/filter was clean I should be safe dropping down to 30% waterchanges.

The wierd thing was that I saw just barely a faint little patch of what I'm assuming to be fungus (lil white cottony patch) when I moved him. I added salt at the same time and he's been in rapind decline since...... It seemed like he got a lot worse after moving so thought maybe the tank I moved him into had worse water then what I took him out of..... that's why I went hard with the waterchanges......

I have not tried QT'd feeders yet...... I don't have any. I'll get some and just forget about the qt as IF the ray makes it I will be qting him anyways.

I'm not gonna lie.....feeling pretty ashamed here. Should have had qt/observation tanks set up.... Instead I just thought I could hit them with Prazi after they began putting on some weight.... Since he ate so well the first week I thought I was out of the woods and began concentrating on the lil pups......

I think it's just a case where it was very delicate after being shipped.... then moved into a pond with a bunch of rays that are established. I think it ate the first few days but then decided he couldn't compete with the other bigger/healthier rays at feeding time..... I think they just intimidated/ harassed him to the point of not eating.

 

[turkeyboy85]

you might have wiped out all your bacteria, cleaning the filter and doing a waterchange wipes out most of it you might have to re- cycle your tank, i would do a water change from one of ur other tanks into that one. also did he eat the armatus? when my leo ate my poly he didnt eat right for like a week.

 

[DB junkie]

There were 2 established filters left on the tank. I cleaned one. I then moved over ANOTHER established filter to that tank. Making for 2 established and 1 cleaned (rinsed in tank water). I highly doubt I wiped out the filters. No he did not eat the Armatus. Just killed it.

 

[Brent]

i would just keep doing what your doing try blackworms
rays could go awhile with out food how long has it been since hes ate??
don't beat yourself up live and learn i just lost a 18inch wide bar its part of the hobbie we are collecting live creatures

 

[DB junkie]

Food........ Refusing shrimp, scallops, cut night crawlers, live ghost shrimp. The ray was eating all this stuff a few days after arrival and he did eat after being moved into the pond but then quit eating after about 3 days, and hasn't eaten for well over a week. The EARLIEST I can get a hold of any blackworms is Thursday unless I find a place to overnight me some for tomorrow.

 

[turkeyboy85]

There were 2 established filters left on the tank. I cleaned one. I then moved over ANOTHER established filter to that tank. Making for 2 established and 1 cleaned (rinsed in tank water). I highly doubt I wiped out the filters. No he did not eat the Armatus. Just killed it.

Guess i read that wrong, sorry

 

[DB junkie]

It's all good man..... I appreciate ANY help/insight.

The main thing I'm wondering about is meds....... Since he seems to be worsening I don't know if I'm supposed to treat with an anti fungal med so it quits getting worse (assuming it is a fungal infection which has still yet to be commented on) OR if I am at that stage where ANY meds might just push him over that unreturnable point.

I read Braveheartcalif used Pima........ if you guys think this will help OR mela OR both then I will get some on the way home.

I allready switched to stress coat rather than the usual chemical I use for waterchanges.