Giving up on teacups (sigh)

[jasoncambs]

Motoro ,,,, no problem
1st teacup . Grew fur on it's feet then died
2nd teacup did not eat and died a bony death
3rd teacup ate like a pig , got nice and fat , now tip of tail broke and it's stopped eating and spends most of it's time swimming from place to place instead of the usual walk ,as if it's to irritating for it to settle anywhere . It actually slept on top of a motoro for comfort last night . I know something is wrong as it's usally first for food .
I have decided to give up on this breed as even my lfs lost one last week to starvation . Seems they are a beginner price but not a good beginner option .
Any ray newbie I advise to start with motoro ,

I have added some salt and melafix to try and fight off the White fluff from the tail tip loss . The loss is due to the arowana picking it up with some bloodworm by mistake . It was just the floppy tail tip and not the bony part

 

[jakethesnake]

What filtration you using?

 

[jasoncambs]

800 litres . Base of tank is 3 foot x 5 foot
I am using 2x eheim pro 3 2080 matured over 2 years on a tank full of datnoides . And the sponges get replaced every six months as per recomendations . Cans use eheim efimech and bio balls
Water gets tested twice a week . I have ammnia alert . And a diy overflow water change system that takes old water out to the drain as new is dripped in through carbon canisters for chlorine removal . Also any poop left in tank gets sucked out each eve . I am pretty religious when it comes to tank maintenance . That's why I am blaming the breed . If someone can tell me what I do wrong then I would be hungry for the knowledge . It just upsets me so much that I have put money into this breed and I knew I should have just gone the motoro route only in the beginning but it just comes round and bites me in the wallet like most people said . My fault for trying to prove people wrong I suppose

 

[manlyfish]

if teacups are so bad then how can people breed them?

 

[jasoncambs]

I am a ray beginner so I can't answer that question. I should think the breeders have the years of knowledge of what works and what don't,
I have enough knowledge to know that my ray stopped eating today means it will last 3 days max before I have to fish it out .
I am hoping the weight it gained during it's first month with me will keep it working long enough for a miracle recovery though .

 

[jakethesnake]

Oh right, set up like mine. Small retics can be a nightmare as often come in to shops in bad way. One thing I will suggest is use of substrat pro instead of bio balls. I have same volume of water with a 2080 and 2060 and ran with efimech and bio balls, trouble was bio balls just wouldnt work. It was as though the bacteria couldnt stick to them. Gave them over 2 months putting up with spikes then went for substrat pro, my god what a difference. Cope with so much more bio load.

Not saying bad water caused death but just thought mention this as your set up is near identical to mine.

 

[jasoncambs]

I meant bio balls as in the small eheim ones lol . It is substrate pro they are called , sorry I forgot the name ,, they are like 12 mm diameter stones , cost a fortune

it's all eheim recommended media for that model filters

 

[jakethesnake]

Perfect then, cant get better. Thought you meant plastic bio balls. just bad luck mate. Ive kept rays for years and grown retics (tea cups) to 15" disc and thn other month lost 2 BDXLeos to lack of oxygen. Very expensive mistake and black rays are hardier than brown rays

 

[manlyfish]

i was thinking about getting a teacup a while ago are they any other easy small rays?

 

[flipstylex]

i thought any type of wish wouldn't starve themselves to death ?...

i guess only rays ?