Hi! I am a graduate student in Florida and I am working with yellows (Urobatis jamaicensis). Currently, I am having some trouble keeping them alive past 2 months. They are being kept in an open pen in our marina that is open to the ocean, and we are taking them from the wild right around the corner. I have two right now and at first they were feeding well (even feeding from hand), and then all of a sudden they stopped eating entirely and are not even close to being as active as they were. Their color has been good until today (getting paler). I am assuming they are stressed from something, but unsure of what. I have even tried adding Selcon to their shrimp and they still won't eat. If they are stressed how can I alleviate it? Any help or suggestions will help greatly. Thank you!
How to alleviate stress
- Thread starter pigce08
- Start date
not very familiar with salt water rays but what does the pin look like? size, location, substrate, maybe some pics will help as well.
They are in a circular pen with a diameter of 36 inches and a depth of about 20 inches. It is a bare bottom because water needs to flow through it. Since they are living in the same water that they came from we are thinking it is probably not water quality or temperature? If they are stressed, I'm unsure how to make them not stressed. I think they have plenty of room to move on the bottom
I’m not well versed on salt water rays but surely that enclosure doesn’t give them the option to do what come naturally and bury themselves when stressed there just left exposed with no where to go.
just basic reading on those rays is that they bury themselves. what you have looks like they cant even get out of the sun. I would look at a different style enclosure. for something easy you could get a large square water holding tank. cut the top off of it. and run a pump to it from the marina and drain it back in the marina. this way you could add sand and it would still be a low maint. set up.
At the current rate of this experiment conservation may be needed.
I would change the design of that pen. Significantly larger is a must. Longer and wider. Those are bottom dwelling rays. Sand would reduce stress for sure. Keeping the basket right on surface like that will result in a lot of light penetration. This will stress them out.
I personally would set up an 8x4x2 ft aquarium/tote/preformed pond, pool, and pump water directly from the ocean into the tank then have it overflow back out.