I posted a vid a week or so ago about the (what I thought was) weird behaviour of my Motoro. She would incessantly swim up the side of the glass but look like she was trying to bite the glass at the same time....it didn't look normal to me, but as I am new with rays, I went with the overwhelming concensus that there wasn't anything abnormal about her behaviour.
Fast forward to today...she is much less active spending most of her time buried. When she does swim around she has been showing a very distinct "flicking" of her disc....like she does when she is getting the sand off of her. But when she does it she has NO sand on her at all. Her breathing seems a little more rapid and her color is not as dark as normal.
I have 1 small Dat and 1 small BN Pleco in the 125 with her. The dat has been flashing every now and then and yawning a fair amount. Neither the dat or the ray has much of an appetite....Ray is eating better than the Dat...The Dat flashing, is showing me there is something going on.....I put a treatment of Prazipro in the tank yesterday....
Here is the stuff you will be looking for
Ammon=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=10-20 (10 after the water change and 20 before)
Temp=80
PH-6.8
2 x XP3's filled with bio and an FX5
Ray is about 7 months old and I have had her for just over 1.5 months
Dat and BN have been in the tank for about 3 months.
Feed=Market prawns, scallops, shrimp, nightcrawlers (feed one pce at a time so there is NEVER leftovers...if what I put in is not eaten...which has been happening lately...I remove it.
Water changes done 2x a week at 25% and conditioned with Prime.
Vacuum every water change
Sand substrate
I test my water daily and log it....sometimes the ammonia gets tested 2 or 3 times a day looking for any illusive Ammonia spikes! (OCD...I know!!!!)
Only thing that has changed in the tank is I moved the stump she likes to hide under to the ctr of the tank ...for some reason the day before yesterday I had a spike in PH from 6.6 to 7.2...did my water change and it has now been back to the normal 6.8.for 36 hrs. ( I think I may have put 4 drops in the vial instead of the required three when I tested)
The ray tends to sit in one spot raising the front of her disc and lowering it....over and over.....then she will raise it very high and do the flick thing...move a bit then repeat the cycle. She is not doing her typical "sifting of the sand".I would get a video, but if I turn the lights on she immediately buries herself. She is no longer "biting at the glass"...but she has that distinctive violent flick every now and then. I can see nothing on her.When she has gone up the glass I see nothing unusual.
From what I have read in other threads it sounds like gill flukes. She is still breathing out of both spiracles and I see no swelling or irritation on her gills or spiracles. I have not seen the massive poops that she used to drop in the tank....but I am not sure that this is due to her not eating as much. She did make a large healthy looking mess yesterday after the water change!
At any rate...that's it. I am concerned as the dat is flashing and the ray is "flicking" (not coughing). ANY and all suggestions would be appreciated. I had just got her settled in and she was as active as ever...now it all seems to be going backwards....
Sorry for the long post but I am trying to give as much pertinant info as possible
Cheers
Tim
Fast forward to today...she is much less active spending most of her time buried. When she does swim around she has been showing a very distinct "flicking" of her disc....like she does when she is getting the sand off of her. But when she does it she has NO sand on her at all. Her breathing seems a little more rapid and her color is not as dark as normal.
I have 1 small Dat and 1 small BN Pleco in the 125 with her. The dat has been flashing every now and then and yawning a fair amount. Neither the dat or the ray has much of an appetite....Ray is eating better than the Dat...The Dat flashing, is showing me there is something going on.....I put a treatment of Prazipro in the tank yesterday....
Here is the stuff you will be looking for
Ammon=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=10-20 (10 after the water change and 20 before)
Temp=80
PH-6.8
2 x XP3's filled with bio and an FX5
Ray is about 7 months old and I have had her for just over 1.5 months
Dat and BN have been in the tank for about 3 months.
Feed=Market prawns, scallops, shrimp, nightcrawlers (feed one pce at a time so there is NEVER leftovers...if what I put in is not eaten...which has been happening lately...I remove it.
Water changes done 2x a week at 25% and conditioned with Prime.
Vacuum every water change
Sand substrate
I test my water daily and log it....sometimes the ammonia gets tested 2 or 3 times a day looking for any illusive Ammonia spikes! (OCD...I know!!!!)
Only thing that has changed in the tank is I moved the stump she likes to hide under to the ctr of the tank ...for some reason the day before yesterday I had a spike in PH from 6.6 to 7.2...did my water change and it has now been back to the normal 6.8.for 36 hrs. ( I think I may have put 4 drops in the vial instead of the required three when I tested)
The ray tends to sit in one spot raising the front of her disc and lowering it....over and over.....then she will raise it very high and do the flick thing...move a bit then repeat the cycle. She is not doing her typical "sifting of the sand".I would get a video, but if I turn the lights on she immediately buries herself. She is no longer "biting at the glass"...but she has that distinctive violent flick every now and then. I can see nothing on her.When she has gone up the glass I see nothing unusual.
From what I have read in other threads it sounds like gill flukes. She is still breathing out of both spiracles and I see no swelling or irritation on her gills or spiracles. I have not seen the massive poops that she used to drop in the tank....but I am not sure that this is due to her not eating as much. She did make a large healthy looking mess yesterday after the water change!
At any rate...that's it. I am concerned as the dat is flashing and the ray is "flicking" (not coughing). ANY and all suggestions would be appreciated. I had just got her settled in and she was as active as ever...now it all seems to be going backwards....
Sorry for the long post but I am trying to give as much pertinant info as possible
Cheers
Tim
