New born rays, what to feed?

[MariaS]

I am so sorry giar ... its heart breaking

I have no idea what went wrong...
i move my pups after 2 days into their own tank set up with water from their birth tank
I do it because the tank is quite high and difficult for me to feed and monitor the pups
Some people keep them in their crate for longer...
The most success I have had in getting them to eat is earthworms (small thin ones) cut into small pieces..

This was a terrible thing to happen.. sometimes it happens and we will never know the reason.. dont lose faith and be optimistic, Im sure the next litter will be fine...

 

[DanHOB]

Sorry to hear of your loss, very sad.
We have recently had pups, it too them 5 days to eat, they are born with a small yolk sac on their belly’s which feeds them for a few days, which maybe why people move them quite quickly to new tank. Did u lift pups out of the water to move them? As this is meant to be a big no no. Did u acclimatise them to new tank before putting them in?
Also, was food staying in their crate or being flushed out quickly? It took about a week of our pups eating before they became aggressive eaters. They would literally sit there n I’d try n get the food to land really close and even on them.

Ours fed on blackworm and mysis shrimp at first and now they eat anything as long as chopped up small.

Hope this is of some help, good luck on your next litter!

 

[mr.gabanz]

Sorry for your loss...

Maybe after this you should offer the same foods that you give to their parents and only transferred them once they are start eating...

 

[00kevin]

Thx for sharing...

a friend told me i should have moved them immediately to their new tank (6hours or so after born), get a heater and set it to 30C.

In my case i left the pups in the floating crate for 1 week. I dont know if it could make any differences or not.

My tank temperature is stable at 27-28C. I dont know if i really need a heater as i live in tropical country.

I would theorize that increased temp would increase metabolism. This would make them hungrier, yes, but also quicken their starvation/death. Cooler temps would extend the timeline significantly, although they may never show interest in food. My guess would be a nice balance between the two extremes. Good luck!

 

[giar]

These are the things that i didnt do and i am planning to do it for the next upcoming pups.

- move them within 24 hours after birth. Last time i left them in the floating crate for a week. This time I dont know if i should wait till a week or two or until they eat before moving them to the new tank or not. Really not sure what do i need to do with this.

- use heater and set the temp to 30C/86F. All this time all my tank temp is at around 27-28C / 80-82F.

- put some quarantined live ghost shrimps in the tank. I never feed my rays live food but for the pups i guess i will just offer them anything as long as they eat.

Anything else? Any advices? Thx!.

 

[MariaS]

I dont have the experience that other members do so i tried to find a balance between all the advice I read..
I left pups in the crate for 2 days to settle down after birth

We set up their new tank with media which was taken from their birth tank as well as water from the birth tank
We then transferred the pups to their tank by gently scooping them into a plastic container, keeping them in the water all the time and gently putting the container in their tank and letting them swim out without ever being out the water

My best success in getting small pups that have arrived in poor shape after being shipped and in transit for many hours has always been earthworms so that is what i gave the new born babies... small thin earthworms chopped in little pieces
The ones that were slower in showing interest, i target fed gently with some tongs and put the food right by their mouth and eventually they all started eating
Once they were pouncing on the worms, i started adding small pieces of mussel as it has a soft texture and they took it as well

I keep my pup tank at 29 degrees

This worked for me.....

 

[spotfin]

When I moved pups out of the main tank, I already had their tank set up. I took substrate, water, and sponges from the sump of the main tank to use in the filter. Pups would be moved the same day that I found them. Temp was the same (or as close to) the main tank. I don’t see any need to increase the temp for pups.
As above, I started with really small pieces of earthworm and foods that were fed to the adults.