Need help with tiger ASAP

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mscamp02

mscamp02

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 13, 2011
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Mt. Sterling KY
I've never ran into something like this but my tiger has what appears to be a worm coming out of her but its stuck. I've just now noticed it but she stopped eating about 4 days ago.

Any ideas? I was half tempted to just try to pull at it but don't want to hurt anything.image.jpeg
 
Wow, that's crazy. How long have you had her?
aquaman45 aquaman45
 
I'm taking it this is a recently wild caught Tiger ray within 6 months anyway...yes?

I have to confess I have never seen anything like it, the picture isn't clear enough to see whether its a large grub/ worm or some sort of prolapse, its very blurred.
If the ray hasn't been treated for internal parasites I suggest you do this right away using Prazi, there is not a lot to gain my pulling it out as if there is one there is likely to be more. If you haven't personally wormed the ray then take it that it probably hasn't been done, several treatments are needed in some cases to eradicate internal pests.
Being a Tiger ray and knowing how difficult they can be to feed I'm thinking you are feeding it exclusively on earthworms/nightcrawlers? It has just occurred to me that what you are seeing here could be the head of a undigested nighcrawler, I have seen this many times, the Earthworm literally passes through the intestine and out of the anus in almost the same form as it went in through the mouth, on second thoughts try pulling it out to inspect it.
The fact the ray has stopped feeding you need to treat the same as I have said above, worm it using Prazi based medication.

I'm a bit rushed here as I have to go to work but I sincerely hope this helps.
 
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Thank you for thre replies. I haven't Prazied her yet but I know Mike (fish dog) did while he had her for several months. I'll dose her again though for good measure with Prazi pro

I couldn't get a good photo last night but it is definitely an earthworm that hasn't been digested yet. I ended up taking her out of the water this morning with the help of my wife and slowly pulled the earthworm free. I was texting with mike last night too and will check into conductivity because his has spiked recently.

Unfortunately she is still on nightcrawlers only and I have been trying to break her to other sources. Could feeding them whole help lead to digestion problems?
 
How big is she? She looks pretty large, but I found with the tiger I had in the past worms needed to be smaller than I'd normally do for rays of similar size. That said it was an issue with the tiger getting them down, not so much the digestion side, so it may not really apply. If yours is taking them down ok I wouldn't think whole worms would really be an issue, but it is possible.
 
She's around a 14 15 inch disk but I've started cutting them now just anyways, can't hurt right

fishguy306 said:
How big is she? She looks pretty large, but I found with the tiger I had in the past worms needed to be smaller than I'd normally do for rays of similar size. That said it was an issue with the tiger getting them down, not so much the digestion side, so it may not really apply. If yours is taking them down ok I wouldn't think whole worms would really be an issue, but it is possible.
Click to expand...
 
So this is where she went....Never seen a worm or any foods go all the way through digestive track and not be digested. Was it still whole when you removed it?
 
The only explanation for this is that the worm is sucked in and swallowed whole without actually puncturing the skin, as it hits the rays stomach, being alive it quickly bypasses the stomach basically avoiding too much contact with the digestive juices (acids) and works its way into the intestine, here it quickly dies but remains in one piece albeit dead by now.

This is something I personally have seen many times, I think chopping the worms up prior to feeding will most definitely help the situation.

Good luck converting your Tiger on to alternative foods, its a beautiful species but incredibly difficult to convert, bags of patience will be needed if you are to succeed.
 
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