New thread...p14 is very swollen????? Video-

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not sure what that shows. You are getting some pups, marbles are harder to breed than motoro's right? I have breeding going on and cant expect rays that are not mature to breed...

Brent seems to have pups often and he has high ph and potentially hard water.
he has some old rays, so must not affect them too much.

I have some rays that are about 5 years old (or close) and seem to breed constantly and they "seem" healthy.


Maybe some rays cant handle it and some can?
 
Everyone here has had issues with pups. I just wonder if we all would have had the same issues in softer, more natural water? Maybe we all would? Maybe we all wouldn't. The problem is we don't know. Now if someone like Shawn that uses RO had the same kind of issues then it would be different, but we have no breeders that are breeding regularly that use RO.

To me successfull ray breeding isn't a pup here and a pup there. It's regular. I get a pup every now and then. Far from what I would consider successfull.

In my eyes just cause I've managed to keep my stock alive does NOT mean that I've provided them ideal living conditions. I've done nothing more then learned some stuff at the price of a few of thier lives.

It's cheaper and easier for me to run my tanks at lower temps. Especially in the winter. But I'm not about to let my tanks drop to 60 and simply decide that the ones that can handle it will stay and the ones that can't just can't.
 
I hadn't actually been paying attention to PH much in my system until the last few days...I've actually been checking a lot of things I havn't normally checked in an attempt to learn new things myself....

I'm now a bit confused and wondering if salt would affect PH somehow as it has certainly raised the E.C....I've just never tracked PH in the system much.

I have 100g of lava rock which I tested to be PH neutral by soaking for a week in straight RO water. My filtered source water (after the water softener, greensand filter, and carbon block) flows out consistantly at PH 7...perfect...however, right now my system PH is 8.2...and I'm not sure how long it's been that way. All I know is that the rays are all very active these days.

I had the great and predictable breeding going on for quite some time until I neglected some things and then the breeding slowed and then stopped...kinda went through a lot of "life" bs for a bit...long story..but I know what Al is saying about how they SHOULD be acting...and then how they act when people say they are "fine"... I've seen them everywhere in-between and I am still learning all these things right here along with everyone else.

Right now, my next step is to put my 1100g system on a slow drip...just enough to compensate for evaporation and help run off a little excess PPM... Then I'm adding a second 1/4" float-fill to the sump to automatically re-fill after larger water changes.

Another thing I havn't seen mentioned as far as running rays at lower temps is temp fluctuation...it is very normal for rays in the wild to see rapid temp change...they hide in lowered waters that are hot from the sun and then get suddenly filled with colder rainwater flowing out of mountan streams. I don't pre-heat my fill water, so the temp is sometimes 68-70 degrees after a fill and they keep right on playing and eating.

I know it seems like this thread is all over the place now, but it's all about learning and keeping rays healthy and water is always the center of this equation.


Mike
 
Clearwater guy said:
Another thing I havn't seen metntioned as far as running rays at lower temps is temp fluctuation...it is very normal for rays in the wild to see rapid temp change...they hide in lowered waters that are hot from the sun and then get suddenly filled with colder rainwater flowing out of mountan streams. I don't pre-heat my fill water, so the temp is sometimes 68-70 degrees after a fill and they keep right on playing and eating.



Mike
Click to expand...

LOL
I rant about this all the time Mike
:)
In the Amazon, the daily water temperature fluctuation is actually greater than the seasonal fluctuation.... 70-80 and back down again.
I used to turn offmy heaters at night and let the temp fall to wherever, but not below 70. and slowly took the water temp up to around 78 when the heaters switched on, either with their timer or their thermostat.
I was very successful with wild Discus and later rays.
I used my well water, around uS 300, collected and filtered rainwater and sometimes r/o mixed in to trigger spawning.
New water in the Amazon, from rain mostly, depending on the season, is usually cold, in the 60's, and goes straight to the bottom of the river via convection currents.
Most of the small rivers don't get any sun, they are covered by forest canopy a lot of the time, this is especially true of the flood season.
I could go on and on :)
 
Here ya go.

099ba1a4.jpg


He eating has improved.. Back to earthworms. He can eat about a half a large earthworm a day. Not as much as the little girl is eating. She can eat 2-3 whole worms a day. Lol
As u can see he is still not right. Still pretty swollen. His coloring is getting sweet an lots of spots.
However the lighting does not reflect it well.
 
with the swelling persisting i would think metro after he he is eating well for a period then a round of anti parasite meds just me that is what i would do Hugh...I just have trouble believing this is caused by ph but then again not an expert for sure.......
 
Thanks man.. I am not sure. It is nice seeing him jump on food, and act better. Thunk I will wait longer, maybe he is coming around slowly. I was told from 2 people who are biologist that metro don't work... I am just not sure..
 
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