Male Leo chewing but never swallowing

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davenmandy

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2012
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I had another thread on the health issues my male leo has been having, but I want to see if we can narrow down the problem here. Today makes 22 days that my male leo ray hasn't eaten anything. He is skinny as can be and unable to actually swallow anything. When I feed him (he is separated with a divider by himself) he gets real excited, pounces on the food hard, starts by chewing and spitting it out multiple times, and has recently turned to holding it in his mouth and swimming around the tank for 10 minutes before spitting it out. He obviously is hungry and obviously wants to eat but I have no idea why he wont swallow any of the food. Have tried smelt shrimp and worms all in tiny pieces, both soaked in garlic and not. He spends half the time in a corner, but the other half swimming around, up on the glass, pounding the gravel looking for food. Have dosed him with metro once, and prazi several times since this issue started developing a month and a half ago, and salt is heavy at 2ppt always. PH is stable at 7.6, no ammonia or nitrites, nitrates over 100ppm but they test 80ppm out of the tap, and that's how my tank has always been, with a female leo on the other side in perfect health. Two things should be noted. First of all, there is an infection on his barb. It is a white fungus looking growth that appears and falls off periodically, on the barb itself, not at all on his tail in any way. Here are a couple pics:

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Secondly, he has a bump around his anus that my female certainly does not have. Now, this may only be more visible because he is so damn skinny, it does not look overly red or discoloured, almost as if it were enflamed or something. Maybe this is natural on males, from the people I have asked they say it doesn't look like too much to be worried about, but maybe he has something he cant pass and that's what is preventing him from swallowing? Here are a couple pics:

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Anyone have any suggestions to get my little guy to actually swallow food? It's been so long and I've tried everything I can think of.

Thanks.

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Humm first thing that sticks out to me is that Your nitrates need to be lower some how, you need to do something about that. I'd they are 80 out of the tap you need to at least do water changes to keep them at 80. Should be able to get it.lower, time to find some good water around somewhere. Also is that an.infection on the barb or just the light covering coming off?? Hard to see in pics on my phone

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i am unsure if nitrates are gonna make or break the deal here, considering all other fish are in perfect condition, including the female leo ray on the other side of the divider that is an absolute BEAST when it comes to food, will swallow anything. besides, with the amount that i have to feed to try to get the ray to eat plus keep my other huge fish happy i think fighting nitrates everytday would be a battle id lose unless i find a way to include live plants in my sump.

thanks for your input scott. i thought of the same thing. the worms i drop in are super small, 1/4 inch. he chews and spits, hopefully hes at least getting some of the nutrients. if he did swallow a stone wtf do i do?
 
correct, cuz i dont have a way to get them where im located. i wish i did. i think im gonna have to resort to ordering them online, but i have no idea what to look for or how to deal with them as i have never had to. think if hes hungry and pouncing on food and trying to eat but unable to swallow with the current 3 options i feed him, think blackworms hed be able to swallow?
 
Didn't realise you're in Canada, I read the original post on my tablet.

Looked around quick and found this, might help:

http://www.canadianaquatics.com/equipment/equipment.htm


What's your history with this ray? How long have you had it?

And yes, if I had a ray that was refusing to eat I'd offer blackworms because it's an almost universal truth that if a ray if going to eat something it'll be that first. I certainly wouldn't be willing to lose a $500+ ray without trying $20 worth of blackworms first.

You can refrigerate them in a container in water, just drain away the water daily and replace with fresh to keep 'em alive.
 
Wow. That other thread was a saga.

I'd still order blackworms. From the sounds of it the ray got stressed, I've seen it before where a stressed ray went on hunger strike and despite pouncing on food just refused to actually eat. Blackworms were the first thing she started back up on. Might work, might not but there's little downside to trying.
 
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