Columbian Flower not eating.

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mshill90

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 4, 2009
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Mechanicsburg, PA
I purchased a Columbian Flower ray, about 10", and he needs to gain weight. His pelvic bones are showing, but it's not too bad.. yet.

I bought him this way, and I know that it's almost a no no. but I am confident that he's not too far gone, and that I can get him to fatten up.

I know that rays can be competitive for food, so I put him in with my motoros to see what he would do.

I've thrown in krill, silverside pieces, massivore, sinking hikari pellets, even tilapia. He doesn't register that this stuff laying on him is food. He just doesn't seem interested.

I was planning on placing him in a solitary tank to make sure he's eating, but I don't see how that will work if I can't even get him interested in food.

He won't even go for worms.

I plan on treating the tank with prazi for internals.

I've heard that flowers are hard to get to eat.

Help?
 
Sigh. You already broke rule #1 (see it eat) and #2 (quarantine).

Get it out to another tank where it's not going to be stressed by anyone and you can monitor food in and poop out. Blackworms, red wrigglers and live shrimp are the most likely foods to be taken initially and all three can be left in the tank 24/7 so he can eat on his own schedule and you'll know that anything that's gone was eaten by him not someone else.

The other things you offered are for a future where he's eating aggressively.
 
If the other rays are messing with him I would move him, If they are not bothering him I would leave him where he is and give him some time and just continue offering food. Prazi is very safe to use and I would start a round if you suspect anything.

It is almost always a better idea to QT a ray and treat for parasites and make sure it is eating before adding it with established fish but now that he is in there you may not want to stress him more by moving him again

Just my 2 cents hope it helps, Maybe someone with experience with flowers can chime in with better advice and good luck I hope he starts eating for you

Edit me and Pete posted at the same timeish I didn't see his post :(
 
The only thing he's eating, is bloodworms... but they aren't going to do anything. My buddy has black worms, so I will grab some from him.

I drove 3 hours to get this ray, and we met in a local area, couldn't really see him eat.

He was bought from a reputable person here on MFK, so I trusted him. The guy did say that he was having issues with him eating and that he was a bit thin. I'm not going to go and blame this person if the ray dies because I bought him in this condition.

I just want to fatten him up, like any ray keeper would.

The other rays don't bother him. They investigated him when he was put in, and now they give him his space. His breathing is fine, no labored breathing, his under belly looks good. Other than the thin eating issue, he seems to be fine.

I have been wanting to prazi the entire tank anyways just as a routine thing to do, so it's good timing.
 
The main problem with not having him by himself is if you put food in and shut off the lights to make him feel more comfortable when the food is gone you will not know who ate it. Hopefully it is just a case of him needing to settle in, it is good that he is eating something even if it is just blood worms.
 
The tank is in the livingroom, so when I turn the lights off, I can still see what's going on from the light in the room.

I heavily fed the tank on the first feeding, and so when I fed the second time, no one really bothered with it, so it definitely gave him a bigger opportunity to eat.

I'm wondering how to get him to recognize the others as food. My motoros came in wildcaught only eating worms, and I didn't even put them on worms. I threw in krill etc, and after a few days they realized that it's food. So, I'm just hoping that this one does the same.

For being thin, he's very active- swimming around like the others, so I take that as him fitting in well. He's made friends with my Juranese Cat.

I have some worms, so I will keep pushing them.
 
You might want to try soaking other foods in blood worms if you have not already. It will give the other food a blood worm scent and get him to nibble and he might like what he tastes :)
 
I don't have alot of experience with stingrays? But, I do have a pair of true columbian flower rays :naughty:. My female is 11" and my male is 9" I've had them for almost two months (I think,lol).
I had trouble with my male flower. At, the beggining he wouldn't eat,skinny and not very active. There was a problem with the shipping process. Almost all of his shipping water had leaked into the shipping box and he was squished into a ball. Scared the crap out of me, I thought he was doa. But, luckily I rescued him in time and now he is doing great. I don't know if this was a factor in him being unactive for the first two weeks?
Anyway, as far as your flower not eating? It's only been a very short time since he's been in your tank. I would keep the lights off for a few days. Let him acclimate to his new surronding's.
Flower rays are very picky eaters and there not aggressive eaters. When you feel he is comfortable with his tankmates? I would first feed him red worms...one or two. When he starts to take those I would keep on offering him them till he ignores them? My male would never hunt for them so I would drop the red worms right on top of him. After my male accepted them I switched over to chopped up n crawlers. He would just suck out the juice but not eat the n crawler pieces. Same with my female, she would do the same thing.
I've tried to feed my flowers fresh shrimp? They don't really like it(maybe yours will). I've tried to feed them frozen bloodworms and krill. They'll eat a few pieces but not alot. I plan on trying to feed them fresh smelt and krill.
After a few week's my male and my female have accepted whole n crawlers. My male has finally come around. He is no longer a couch potato! My female has always been active and now my male is also a busy body. They both mainly my male flower goes nutt's over n crawlers! He eat's 2-3 n crawlers at once, my female is a litte slower on them. My male will fight for all the worms and he likes to try and steal a n crawler out of my females mouth? lol
Just give your flower time to adjust,try to offer him a variety of foods till you find something he like's. Then move on to other things for him to eat.
 
Ok, so I've had the flower ray since Saturday. I fed them saturday.. krill, silverside pieces.. he ate nothing.

Later that day I did bloodworms, and he ate them.

Well, I didn't feed until today again.. I soaked some krill in with bloodworms for about 6 hours. Threw them in the tank, and he chowed down on the krill! Now, the krill I get is pretty large. Like 1.5" maybe bigger. He ate like 8 pieces of these!

And I was sure of it, because he would swim over a food covered spot, and when he swam away, it would be clean.

:D
 
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