Need Experts Advice. Motoro Stingray dying.

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mvonstei

Gambusia
MFK Member
Mar 4, 2012
10
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16
York, PA
Hey Guys,

I've owned a Motoro Stingray for about 2 years now. He's been an awesome pet and have spent a lot of time, money, and energy into keeping him healthy and happy. My wife named him "Sprinkles"..which I allowed.

On Friday, March 2nd, I fed the ray and did my weekly water change and treatment. The stingray ate and all was well, like normal.

Ok, so, here is where the sad news starts, I wake up this morning to find the ray in immense distress, swimming around erratically and with apparent damage to his fins. He lives in a large tank, which a sand substrate. His tanks mates are 2 small bala sharks and a few tiger barbs that the ray will snack on occasionally. So no aggressive fish, no large tank mates. My nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels are normal, and as I said before, i do regular water changes of up to 60% - 80%.

I immediately pulled him out of the tank so quarantine him, but guys look at him, its awful, here's of him from this morning:

P1000938.JPG

Guys, this is what I want you to understand guys, this happened in 24 hours, at least the visible effects of what is going on happened in 24 hours. His fins are beginning to curve up which I know if an awful sign. My wife and I are definitely upset over the prospect of losing the guy, we love him. So, i'm coming to you guys for help:

What the heck happened?
Is there anything I can do?

- Sad Owner, Matthew

P1000938.JPG
 
Probably shouldn't have moved him but moved all his tank mates out.

What are the exact levels of ammonia,Nitrite, and Nitrate?

If those all check out normal with the time frame and the damage I would suspect the barbs

Although it would stress him I would remove the tank mates and move him back into the tank. The cramped conditions may be attributing to his stress

Once you do that see if you can get some closer pictures too maybe even a side profile shot his tail looks a bit thin to me but it may be nothing hard to tell from the above shot

If he doesn't start to improve after that you will know it is not the barbs and have to begin considering bacteria or fungal treatments for whatever may be on him
 
Are you monitoring the water conditions in quarantine, it looks like he is just in a small bucket with a filter. The best thing you can do for an injured ray is make sure the water parameters stay perfect and don't stress him out.

You don't have an exposed heater do you? If not then it was probably one of the tank mates, I don't think a fungus could move that fast, but I could be wrong.
 
if you mean the white marks on one side of his disc it doesnt look so bad to me. is it possible that an ornament has fallen and trapped his disc ? could he have got part of his disc stuck anywhere maybe even just above the water ? have you got a new heater with no cover/guard ?

one of my rays has worse damage to her disc atm from the male trying to breed and ive seen many rays recover from worse damage. if your water perameters are good then i would just keep a close eye on him and try not to change much. just let him settle and recover and try not to change too much.

ive seen lots of people panic and start doing large water changes or add lots of chemicls with the rays best interest in mind and tbh ive done it myself years ago but in the end the best thing thats worked for me is just leaving them alone and let them get on with recovering.

hope he gets better
 
Thank you guys, I am moving him back into the main tank as you advise. I am going to watch water parameters closely.

The picture doesn't totally show you, but the darker part actually looks dried and cracked, like its dying skin. Thank you so much for your quick responses. I will be so angry if this is all caused by $2 tiger barbs.
 
Beautiful motoro. Hard to tell from the pic but if your water is good and he has been a longtime captive ray then give him some time and he should recover. I would also suggest removing the small fish as they may pick at his injury/sores. His tail looks pretty thin for a 2 yr old ray so perhaps after he heals up increase his feeding regimen. Good luck.
 
thats not good at all...i am sorry.

i have no idea what that is..i have never seen it before.
was it a CB or WC ray.
i know that a parasite can live unnoticed for years and then one day it comes out.
 
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