I have 2 hystrix rays in my tank. The female has been with me about a year and is now around 7'' in diameter, the male is a new import at 4 weeks - he's about 3''. I moved him from quarantine a couple of days ago and they seem to get along ok except when it comes to feeding. She goes nuts when he gets any food, covers him completely and looks like she's trying to bite him. He's holding his own and never gives up his food, but I'm a bit worried. I assume fighting over food is normal, but I also don't want her to kill him over a worm. I also realize that moving him to a different tank is the best option, except I don't have anything big enough to house him for any extended period of time. What do you guys think?
Hystrix aggression
- Thread starter AlexLbk
- Start date
This is pretty standard, I've seen cases where it happens when a new ray is introduced and I've seen it happen consistently for months with some of my rays. I had a Henlei who did it to my biggest Motoro for a few weeks after I added him to her tank but after a while he seemed to realise that there was plenty of food to go round and gave it up. I have 3 Henlei in another tank and they all pile on top of each other when it's food time but no real damage gets done.
Probably the best thing to do is make sure there are plenty of pieces of food and that they're spread around so the rays aren't forced to one spot in the tank to eat together.
Probably the best thing to do is make sure there are plenty of pieces of food and that they're spread around so the rays aren't forced to one spot in the tank to eat together.
That's exactly what happens here. I have noticed that she gets really nasty when I give him earth worms. She loves them and even if she gets her own once it's eaten she tries to steal the 1/3 of the worm he gets.
She has never refused a worm no matter how full she is. She'll want more even if I feed the whole box.
