My best guess would be that your tds are high
I will look into this Trevor, truth be told I do not know much about TDS. What range should I be within what would I do to reduce TDS?
What kind of rays do u have. I'd be surprised if u r keeping bds at that high. Motoros tend to be more tolerable though....... When my nitrates have been high in past, all kinds of wacky stuff takes place with all my fish, like not eating routinely, start being lathagic, heavy breathing, unbalanced, twitching, etc., especially bds and aros.
They are bd's and leos. They show no signs of stress from what I can see at all. When they are stressed they are very skittish to the point that me walking by the tank sends them freaking out sometimes, but I haven't seen that in a long time. Also when they are stressed they tend to sit in a corner and not do much, my guys are crawling all over each other, pounding the gravel, riding the glass. Spots are real white too, I find when they get stressed or water is a bit off the spots are a bit more yellowish/tan. Also if it was water quality/stress wouldn't my prego mama give stress birth/abort? 145 days today, obviously cuz I'm a bit worried I made it a bit late into work today cuz I wanted to make sure movement is still on both sides, and it's there. I have in the past had these rays and a few bass, some catfish, a black aro, knives, gar, all with the same nitrates and that was before the drip so I imagine at the end of the week they may have been even higher. Only thing that caught my attention in your post is the twitching, my prego female sometimes swims in the middle of the water column and twitches, or does other stuff like messes with her tail or opens her mouth real wide and arches her back, but neither of the other 2 do it so I attributed it to being uncomfortable and pregnant. This is a once a week thing at the very most.
I would start by buying all new test kits. I've had false kits before. Then after that I would make sure that no tank mates are bugging the ray. (Camera or 24hr watch) I don't think that a nitrate that high would cause a ray to stop eating. I've killed Rays for my nitrates being around 200+ because of a faulty test. Have you checked for current in the tank from a pump?
Funny you mention the test kit, same thought crossed my mind cuz mine is over a year old, but since there was a difference between the tap and the tank at right around what I thought it should be I figured it was alright. I will be doing this though. The other thing I thought of was that maybe I'm testing wrong. "Shake vigorously" is a bit subjective, so I really give'r. Maybe I gotta be closer to 1 minute right on the dot rather than counting 60 in my head. I have not checked for current in the tank, how would you do that? I added a new pump for the pup tank about 1.5 months ago, and again this issue only started 2 weeks ago at most, but this is a possibility I would like to explore nonetheless. I have thought of an RO unit, didn't think I needed it though, if nitrates really are my problem then I will definitely get one. No other tank mates, the little female, coincidentally the one that is eating the worst, may be stressed from the male trying to breed her, but all 3 have experienced a decrease. I can't move her till my other one pops, then I will put the male back in jail.
Today I will feed smelt, used to feed a dozen or more, now I have been feeding 10 medium-large ones, 5 to the prego female, 5 between the other 2. My prediction: prego female will leave 1-2 pieces at most and they will be gone in the morning, the other two will leave 2-3 pieces. And I mean pieces not full smelt (they will eat full guys but I cut em in half or thirds just to make it easier for them).
