G'day everyone
My situation is; I have a 8x3x2.5 with 4 rays in it + a couple big acrher fish and a big colony of Rhampsochromis. The rays turn 1 year old on the 30th of January in a weeks time. I got these rays when they were 4 weeks old and just tiny little pups. They are all a solid 12" in disk diameter, got a good measurement on the male with a tape measure last night when he was swimming up the glass he was 11" 1/2" and a couple of the girls are slightly larger.
The boy has fully rolled claspers, and has had them like this for probably the last 3 months. Will try get a pic of them but they are like two big sausages hanging off the back of him. Over the last 6 weeks or so I have physically seen the male trying to mate with 2 of the females. In particularly with the largest female. I have seen him actually get him claspers in, but have seen him latch on to the back half of the girls disks, the girls don't seem to impressed with this behaviour and they appear to try and sting him when he does this? From this behaviour and their age I assume the male is fully mature (hence the rolled claspers), the females however I assume need a little more time and size? as they are a chunky 12".
These guys have always been fantastic feeders right off the bat. I try to vary their diet as much as possible. They get a mixture of hikari carnivore/massivore/cichlid gold/catfish wafers (Yes, Hikari have raped my pockets of thousands of dollars over the years), squid, fish fillets, white bait and prawn. I get all the 'frozen' food from the fish markets fresh (human consumption) and feed what I can, then freeze the next couple weeks feed. So they have been spoilt with food, eat better than most people. I attribute what their great growth rate and seemily early maturity to being in a 8x3 their whole life and been fed very well + good filtration and bi-weekly WC's.
Back to my questions. I have been talking to another ray keeper in Aus, his female motoro gave birth to her first litter of pups at bang on 12months of age and about 12- 13", so I'm guessing mine might be on a similar path. What are the neggative impacts if any of a young female giving birth at 12" + ? if any.
Also the largest female has a few bites out of her disk and a bit of grazing on her back, nothing to overly worry about (IMO). But what can I add to help her along in healing? What is the recommended salt dosage to help rays heal up?
Melafix? I have always thought of melafix as a bit of gypsy magic. What are everyones thoughts on this product with rays?
I also have a young male pup from unrelated bloodlines that I will hopefully add to the group in the future.
This group will remain in this tank until mid next year. I have a 8'x6x3' acrylic tank in storage, can't set it up as its too big to fit in my current house, so will have to wait till my new place is built.
Sorry for the long post. I'm from Australia, where rays are still fairly 'rare' and expensive, so I find this site a great source of information.
Thanks again,
Alex
My situation is; I have a 8x3x2.5 with 4 rays in it + a couple big acrher fish and a big colony of Rhampsochromis. The rays turn 1 year old on the 30th of January in a weeks time. I got these rays when they were 4 weeks old and just tiny little pups. They are all a solid 12" in disk diameter, got a good measurement on the male with a tape measure last night when he was swimming up the glass he was 11" 1/2" and a couple of the girls are slightly larger.
The boy has fully rolled claspers, and has had them like this for probably the last 3 months. Will try get a pic of them but they are like two big sausages hanging off the back of him. Over the last 6 weeks or so I have physically seen the male trying to mate with 2 of the females. In particularly with the largest female. I have seen him actually get him claspers in, but have seen him latch on to the back half of the girls disks, the girls don't seem to impressed with this behaviour and they appear to try and sting him when he does this? From this behaviour and their age I assume the male is fully mature (hence the rolled claspers), the females however I assume need a little more time and size? as they are a chunky 12".
These guys have always been fantastic feeders right off the bat. I try to vary their diet as much as possible. They get a mixture of hikari carnivore/massivore/cichlid gold/catfish wafers (Yes, Hikari have raped my pockets of thousands of dollars over the years), squid, fish fillets, white bait and prawn. I get all the 'frozen' food from the fish markets fresh (human consumption) and feed what I can, then freeze the next couple weeks feed. So they have been spoilt with food, eat better than most people. I attribute what their great growth rate and seemily early maturity to being in a 8x3 their whole life and been fed very well + good filtration and bi-weekly WC's.
Back to my questions. I have been talking to another ray keeper in Aus, his female motoro gave birth to her first litter of pups at bang on 12months of age and about 12- 13", so I'm guessing mine might be on a similar path. What are the neggative impacts if any of a young female giving birth at 12" + ? if any.
Also the largest female has a few bites out of her disk and a bit of grazing on her back, nothing to overly worry about (IMO). But what can I add to help her along in healing? What is the recommended salt dosage to help rays heal up?
Melafix? I have always thought of melafix as a bit of gypsy magic. What are everyones thoughts on this product with rays?
I also have a young male pup from unrelated bloodlines that I will hopefully add to the group in the future.
This group will remain in this tank until mid next year. I have a 8'x6x3' acrylic tank in storage, can't set it up as its too big to fit in my current house, so will have to wait till my new place is built.
Sorry for the long post. I'm from Australia, where rays are still fairly 'rare' and expensive, so I find this site a great source of information.
Thanks again,
Alex
