My Ray Appears Very Sick - Please Help

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Water changes are way too infrequent the way you are doing them at 25% per month. I do 50% changes every 1 week on my ray setup. The diet is insufficient as well.

I would run out and get some test kits and see what your water parameters are like before going through any procedures. Helpful information would be what is your, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrates. It's tough to diagnose the problem without water parameters. Without the readings, you could end up doing more harm than good.


Also, what filtration do you have on that tank? If your filtration is inadequate, there may be ammonia present in your system which in severe cases would cause ammonia burn. If the spots are appearing out of nowhere, this could be the case. How are the disc edges of the ray?
 
i have a 125 and i do 50-60% a week...do you have a pleco? and by parameters he means nitrite,nitrate...and so on. You can get night crawlers at any fishing store or sporting goods like big 5 and even walmart has them. make sure you cute the worms and shrimp into small pieces as ur rays have very small mouths
 
Did a stick test and nitrate seems high... don't have a pleco... I have my fish professional coming over tonight to do professional tests but how do I eliminate the nitrate? Will my ray survive? Again... about the salt... is this OK for discus and angel fish? Thank for all these suggestions- and I thought I was doing a good job!

N
 
Really the only way to remove nitrates is by water changes, and since you have not been doing them that is why they are high. I do not know about discus but I would ASSUME the dose of one table spoon of salt per five gallons of water would be safe for them if its safe for a ray.

Water parameters BTW are the chemicals levels of your tank like how much ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, Ph ect...

Oh and if you feed nightcrawlers make sure you rinse them under your sink first to remove the excess dirt to avoid fouling your tank. Again what is your filtration?
 
more water changes might help...

i do at least 75% every week on my 180g.

whats your filtration like???
 
I take it that your fish professional is the one taking care of the tank for you?? Do they have experince with freshwater stingrays? You should really learn the care for them and take care of them yourself. the pros are good but only on a fairly standard set up otherwise they are quite costly because you need REGULAR service each week.
 
I do need to learn and appreciate everyone's help. Is there someone on any of these threads I can get guidelines. I just went out to buy nightcrawlers and shrimp and am going to feed now. I haven't answered filtration question because I don't know what to call it... I have a large plexiglass box under the tank with two sides and one side has bio-balls? that the water filters into and water seems to circulate from the top of the tank. By the way... rays are loving the worms!

N
 
Your box full of bio balls is called a sump. That is a really really good thing!

Do you have the stuff to do water changes? such as a python, a hose that hooks up to the sink, or a syphon with a tube to suck up any crap in the water? Use them to do your water changes and take it down 20-30% and make sure you have some water conditioner on hand usually a cap full will do 10 gallons, so figure out how many gallons your putting back in from the tap and add that to your tank just before adding the new fresh water. You need to make sure that the water temp is close to the same from the tap and the tank. Just a simple finger dip test should get you close to the same temprature. Do this about twice a week and keep an eye on your nitrates you want to keep them in and around 10 parts ppm (parts per million) or lower. If you have questions you can PM me.
 
No offense because you are doing a great job at realizing your mistake and doing research to correct it, but before jumping into to difficult things such as ray keeping its always best to research first! Oh and like mentioned before you really need to learn this your self because having to pay a "profesional" who I bet doesnt know jack about FW rays come in and do at LEAST weekly maintanece can be costly!
 
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