I just finished the worst month of my life in fishkeeping. First my 14" albino channel catfish died, from self-inflicted wounds. I was doing a water change, and he went bonkers, just slamming around the tank, running into all 4 walls. He got pretty banged up, but healed up well. He was never the same though, and his appetite steadily decreased until the day he died (about 2 weeks after the incident).
Next, I tried moving my 8.5" male motoro ray into a larger tank. He got severely picked on overnight, and died 24 hours after moving him back to his old tank.
Then, this past Sunday, I woke up to find my younger, 5.5" male motoro ray dead out of the blue. No sign of injury, stress, or disease. He ate heartily the night before, but was dead, with his disk curled up and white around the edges the next morning. I haven't posted yet about that, because I've been too busy worrying about the tank and other things. I did a 50% waterchange on Sunday, and another 20% water change on Monday, just to be sure the water was clean.
Then, today, when I got home from work (about 30 minutes ago), I discover my prized 8.5" female motoro ray dead. Same thing as the young male. She was swimming around fine last night, ate like normal, and dead today, with the same disk curl and white edges. Absolutely no sign of injury, stress, or disease beforehand.
I have no idea what's happened. My tank levels test normal (they did after both of the other deaths as well) other than nitrate levels of about 40ppm. The pH is fine, temp is 80F, lights are only on when I'm home. Nothing has been put into the tank or been taken out of the tank. Nothing has changed that I can tell. The tankmates have been the same for months (since the rays were put into the tank), and none of them have been exhibiting any aggressive behavior at all.
At this point I'm just feeling sick. I don't know if I even want to keep fish any more, let alone stingrays. They were all doing so well, and then to have them all die out of nowhere in less than a month, I don't know what to do....
I don't know if I'm looking for any answers here, or just venting. Thanks for reading though...
Next, I tried moving my 8.5" male motoro ray into a larger tank. He got severely picked on overnight, and died 24 hours after moving him back to his old tank.
Then, this past Sunday, I woke up to find my younger, 5.5" male motoro ray dead out of the blue. No sign of injury, stress, or disease. He ate heartily the night before, but was dead, with his disk curled up and white around the edges the next morning. I haven't posted yet about that, because I've been too busy worrying about the tank and other things. I did a 50% waterchange on Sunday, and another 20% water change on Monday, just to be sure the water was clean.
Then, today, when I got home from work (about 30 minutes ago), I discover my prized 8.5" female motoro ray dead. Same thing as the young male. She was swimming around fine last night, ate like normal, and dead today, with the same disk curl and white edges. Absolutely no sign of injury, stress, or disease beforehand.
I have no idea what's happened. My tank levels test normal (they did after both of the other deaths as well) other than nitrate levels of about 40ppm. The pH is fine, temp is 80F, lights are only on when I'm home. Nothing has been put into the tank or been taken out of the tank. Nothing has changed that I can tell. The tankmates have been the same for months (since the rays were put into the tank), and none of them have been exhibiting any aggressive behavior at all.
At this point I'm just feeling sick. I don't know if I even want to keep fish any more, let alone stingrays. They were all doing so well, and then to have them all die out of nowhere in less than a month, I don't know what to do....
I don't know if I'm looking for any answers here, or just venting. Thanks for reading though...
