How do you feed a ray with other aggressive eaters in same tank?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
B

blacksnow

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 8, 2009
421
0
16
42
Monoculus ;)
I have a 125g tank with 3 juvenile cichla monoculus, and a juvenile arowana. I added a hystrix, and it's hard for me to get him food.

The largest of my 3 cichla monoculus devours anything that hits the surface. I could overfeed him, and he will still go after whatever I put in the tank.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated..

Thanks in advance
 
That is the problem with p bass and aros with rays. They hardly let any food get to the bottom. I had a 7 inch silver aro bite one of my rays because he followed the food to the bottom and snatched it just as a ray moved over it. I had p bass in with them before and they would try to eat all the food up before anything else got any. Your best bet is to use your hand or some tongs and get the food to the bottom then let it go. I did this before, but beware of the pbass's location, because they will take the food from the tongs as well. Good luck, and I hope your filtration is large enough to cope with the bio load.
 
depending on the size of ray and what you are feeding, you can do several things. use the turkey baster method and hand feed work best.
 
My filtration is a fluval fx5 full of seachem matrix biomedia. So there is plenty for now as they are all juveniles. Will move them to larger tank when necessary =)


I'm a bit nervous about hand feeding =o. New to the ray thing...any pointers? Guess I need to find a large turkey baster or get some plastic tongs...

My ray is about 6" though...can I feed him shrimp chunks already?

Just want to make sure he stays healthy!


Appreciate your replies!
 
You don't have to hand feed, you just need to get the food on the bottom. If the food sinks to the bottom, the pbass and aro will follow it down. If you use your hand or another device, they tend to not pay attention to it. Once I the bottom they will leave it alone and the ray can get it.
 
I had this problem originally with my rays.

I found that feeding from more than one position in the tank allows the rays to get to the food.

This works better if you have a larger tank because it makes it difficult for the other fish to get to the food in time.
 
What worked for me until i got rid of all my pbass and aro's that were in competition for food was use a piece of pvc and slide the shrimp down the tube to the rays.. After the rays get used to seeing the pvc they'll actually know when they see the pvc it's dinner time..lol
 
i know this works with other bottom feeders in tanks that have many other greedy fish. turn off the lights and try to make the tank as dark as possible, drop in the food and wait a couple minutes before you turn on the lights again. this will at least reduce the odds of the other fish getting to it first
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom