Her hips don’t lie

[Matteus]

Ok so I have recently acquired a trio of albino pearls. I started them in a 2’x2’ foot print section cordoned off from the rest of my tank.

The male is eating well and strong, even attacking bigger fish. He’s feisty and I like it(so far lol).

The bigger female is looking really healthy and eating very well but not as intense as the male of course.

But my little female is hardly eating anything, if anything at all. I have tried frozen mysis, frozen bloodworms, pellets, red wigglers live , and live bloodworms. I am only offering small foods because I don’t want to chance them choking while so small. Her rib cage has been very defined but no hips showing until yesterday. Head isn’t sunk yet and I hope it doesn’t get to that. I am just about to pick up some guppies for my next crack at it, as much as I don’t want to. I watched her through the box and it looks like she doesn’t know how to suck the worms, just blowing.. I’m baffled at this point but not giving up any time soon.

I have made a floating box to isolate her even farther and monitor even closer if she is eating, and also to watch for her poop. I have been changing 10-20 gal daily and 75% on a weekly. It has only been this week that I have had them but keeping a close eye. I dosed with prazi yesterday after a big wc. A have added some salt but not a full dose by any means.

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-5ppm before wc
Temp-82

 

[cigars]

Matteus she’s definitely thin, any chance of parasites? I always dose my new rays with prazi for minimum of three weeks just in case also monitor feeding and if I have any inclination of a problem I also use metro, kanamycin, or nitro. Kanamycin does boost appetite, prazi also seems to boost appetite usually day 2 you get aggressive feeding. Sounds like your doing all the right things though keep us updated.

 

[Matteus]

Thanks man. I’m just wondering if anyone has any tricks or tips to encourage a pup To eat. It seems like she doesn’t know how to suck the food into her mouth.

 

[Matteus]

So I was told by a local friend/ breeder to put the other female who eats well in with her as a teacher. It seems to have worked. I watched her eat more worms tonight, than all week put together.

And in other good news my worms are breeding like crazy so will have a decent supply for a while.

 

[cigars]

 

[Matteus]

So I dropped a nice sized chunk of live bloodworms this morning. Grabbed my breakfast and went to scoop out the leftovers, I was happy to find that there weren’t any.

But I am noticing the little one spinning around in circles. I am quite concerned at this point. I tested the water right inside the bin and I am not sure if ammonia is showing up or not. So I swished more of the fresh water through it. I took the bigger female out of the bin because I am not sure if she is picking on the little one for it to be stressed or not at this point. I might do a wc before I go into work

 

[islandguy11]

Well by the colors on my monitor your Ammonia looks to be nil, good to hear she's feeding and hope she stops the 360 stuff, hopefully it was just stressed from being with the bigger one and she'll have settled down before you get back from work.

 

[Matteus]

Well by the colors on my monitor your Ammonia looks to be nil, good to hear she's feeding and hope she stops the 360 stuff, hopefully it was just stressed from being with the bigger one and she'll have settled down before you get back from work.

I hope so too. I just did a 50% wc for good measure.

I am not a morning person whatsoever, I can’t believe what my life is turning into here lol. These rays seem to be my first children. Lol. Hopefully what I learn here will help me with the real kid

 

[Matteus]

So I drove through this to get some live ghost shrimp. Got to the store to find out they only had 2. She keeps spinning around as if to try and catch her tail, almost like she has lost her mind. She keeps curling her disc upward like stretching. Amongst the spinning she has come across the shrimps a few times. She managed to eat one but the other got away now 2 times that I have seen.




Hard to photograph a translucent shrimp through glass and plastic, but that is the last one left.

I better go to work now before I get fired ?

 

[islandguy11]

That's a lot of effort for 2 lil' ghost shrimp lol, sorry I had to laugh a bit at that Super Dad to be. I'll bet you're the kind of guy who'll get out of bed to go get his wife pickles at 3am in the morning, best of luck with your upcoming adventures in dadhood.