How to get rays off pellets

[SaltyPlum]

Does anyone have any tips on how to get rays off pellets and eating other foods?

I've had this pair for about 4 months now and from day one I've fed them a variety of different food each day so that they got into a routine of eating a healthy diet. However, over time they have gotten fussy and will starve themselves until i fed them pellets again. It's all they're interested in now and the **** is expensive. For a 74g packet of carnivore pellets is aroumd $20 and they will go through that in 4/5 days.

I had a male mantilla ray prior to this pair and he would eat anything i put in the tank, wasn't fussy at all and he would even let me hand feed him. Im not doing anything differwnt with the pair so not sure why they're so fussy!

Any tips or suggestions on what i can do to help mix up they're diet would be appreciated.

 

[islandguy11]

Does anyone have any tips on how to get rays off pellets and eating other foods?

I've had this pair for about 4 months now and from day one I've fed them a variety of different food each day so that they got into a routine of eating a healthy diet. However, over time they have gotten fussy and will starve themselves until i fed them pellets again. It's all they're interested in now and the **** is expensive. For a 74g packet of carnivore pellets is aroumd $20 and they will go through that in 4/5 days.

I had a male mantilla ray prior to this pair and he would eat anything i put in the tank, wasn't fussy at all and he would even let me hand feed him. Im not doing anything differwnt with the pair so not sure why they're so fussy!

Any tips or suggestions on what i can do to help mix up they're diet would be appreciated.

I've never kept rays so other could probably advise better, but may I ask are you feeding pellets alone on some days and other foods by themselves each day? If so you could do like I do with my Aros and feed them a smaller portion of pellets daily, alongside other foods (but you could change out the other foods daily). My Aros are ok with pellets but they much prefer shrimp/fish -- but they know they're not getting any shrimp or fish until they've eaten some pellets -- you could maybe reverse that process.

 

[SaltyPlum]

I've never kept rays so other could probably advise better, but may I ask are you feeding pellets alone on some days and other foods by themselves each day? If so you could do like I do with my Aros and feed them a smaller portion of pellets daily, alongside other foods (but you could change out the other foods daily). My Aros are ok with pellets but they much prefer shrimp/fish -- but they know they're not getting any shrimp or fish until they've eaten some pellets -- you could maybe reverse that process.

Yeah i get what your saying and ive been trying to feed them a mix of food with each feed. For example i would throw in a cube or two of beef heart/blood worms to get them started, than some chopped up shrimp/fish, follwed by pellets. It was going well until they got the taste for just pellets and will now hold out on all other food. They have tank mates which will eat everything in order, but the rays have become fussy. The male will sometimes eat beef heart but the female will only eat pellets. Ive tried starving them for a couple days at a time and tried just feeding them shrimp or fish, but they rather starve.

 

[islandguy11]

Yeah i get what your saying and ive been trying to feed them a mix of food with each feed. For example i would throw in a cube or two of beef heart/blood worms to get them started, than some chopped up shrimp/fish, follwed by pellets. It was going well until they got the taste for just pellets and will now hold out on all other food. They have tank mates which will eat everything in order, but the rays have become fussy. The male will sometimes eat beef heart but the female will only eat pellets. Ive tried starving them for a couple days at a time and tried just feeding them shrimp or fish, but they rather starve.

Ok that info kinda makes my recommendations irrelevant -- but yeah that's sure strange for them to actually prefer pellets to the exclusion of those other foods, most peeps have the opposite problem (yours is the better situation imo, as at least a good pellet will meet most (if not arguably all) of their nutritional needs.

Hope somebody comes along with better advice -- though I forgot to say wow, ~$20 for Sinking Carnivore is pretty crazy, here a 74g bag costs what converts to ~$6-7.

 

[Birch]

I got a pair of mantillas and a motoro. They where on pellets and how i did it don't feed them if there hungry they will eat good luck

 

[EntoStentor]

They won't starve themselves to death. Just starve em until they eat new food.

 

[SaltyPlum]

Ok that info kinda makes my recommendations irrelevant -- but yeah that's sure strange for them to actually prefer pellets to the exclusion of those other foods, most peeps have the opposite problem (yours is the better situation imo, as at least a good pellet will meet most (if not arguably all) of their nutritional needs.

Hope somebody comes along with better advice -- though I forgot to say wow, ~$20 for Sinking Carnivore is pretty crazy, here a 74g bag costs what converts to ~$6-7.

Yeah it's expensive here and the closest store that sells it is a good 40min drive from where i live. A 250g bag of hikari gold is cheaper at $16. I try and feed the other fish with the gold to distract them from the carnivore pellets when trying to feed the rays to make them last longer, but 74g is the biggest size they have and they go through it in 4/5 days... might have to try and starve them longer until they start accepting other foods.

 

[TheReefer]

Take the food you want them to eat and jam pellets in there and see if that interests them, if it does, then just slowly cut down the amount of pellets in there and eventually they get used the item you want them to eat

 

[cigars]

SaltyPlum crush the pellets into a powder and coat the meaty foods you want them to eat with the pellet powder but let it sit for a little while so it soaks I’m really well, then gradually make less powder to coat the foods with until there’s almost no powder. It’s messy but they should accept the other foods

 

[Rhyno8]

Mine goes bonkers for whole shrimp, buying pellets in bulk saves I get 2.5kg of nls Thera a plus or mega fish formula for 150dollars it lasts a 2-3 months with my 20” male and couple other fish I have.