Hello guys I hope you can help me, here is my story
I recently (1 week ago) purchased 2 little stingray pups sold to me as magdalenae or teacup stingray one being around 4" disk width and the other a little less then 6"dw. The guy had a few and sold them to me for a really good price (50$ each) wich is a steal in my area they usualy go for around 100 to 150, anyways this guy was about an hour away from me and even offered a doa (dead on arrival) warranty so I felt safe.
I went down there and picked up 2 nice ones, no apparent injuries , they were swimming around , full tail. He put them in a doubled large fish bag and added some air with a pump. Dropped them in a Styrofoam cooler and then I went on my 1 hour drive. It was a hot day around 90f so he didnt put heat pad.
I got home and did a drip system about 1 drop second from a 33 gal (36×12 footprint) I had prepped the night before ( it was holding 2 juvenile JD , a juvenile red terror and a medium convict ) So I knew the filters would be fine. Those fish we're given to my friend who has a 55g. I also added an air stone in the bags.
The water parameters are
amonia-0 : nitrite-0 : nitrate-20ppm : ph-7.2
temps 78-79 . On really hot days it gets to 81 but cools down at night back to normal gh, kh and tds are unknown.
The tank has a 1/4" of fine white reptile sand bottom that has been in an aquarium for over 2 years and it's not sharp. I also put a small piece of mopani with 3 anubias nana on it.
Hardware
1 aquaclear 300 complete 1 aqualear 150 with a sponge and filter floss, an air stone, 1 fluval 200w heater and a fluval 100w heater as backup ( the heaters have been separated with eggcrate to 1 side of the tank)
Light is a reptile basking spot with a led bulb 6500k hanging a few inch over the tank and open 8hr a day on timer.
I also only use nutrafin waste control in my water. I prime my water by letting it sit in a 45g food grade drum with the waste control, a 300w china brand heater and a pond pump with a home made sponge filter.
After about 2 hours of dripping I refilled the tank about 2gal more or less. I then netted the rays and put them in their new home. They looked good and happy moving around and playing in the air bubbles. A few hour passed I fed them, bloodworms on a rock with an elastic so they would stay on the bottom. They both seemed to eat and enjoy the worms.
From there I fed them 3 times a day with bloodworms, I did a 5 gal water change daily and I watched them for hours every day.
2 days ago when I fed them in the morning I noticed the small guy not being as playfull, he didn't go for the worms !!! That was it I knew something was up, but it looked good no marks, no sign of sickness, untill he moved to the glass. I noticed the outside perimeter of the disk on the belly had some marks like a dark spot, kinda looked like fungus or something but it was still small. I took some water and did some test. Everything was good as said before. I still did a 15 gal water change. By the end of the day it had gotten worst and took expansion and ran almost around the ring. the picture I took was the second morning sorry for the blur it passed by so fast and i didnt want to bother it to much.
So that's where I'm at !
I dunno what to do. The big guy shows no sign of anything he's as good as day one and he's less shy. I was thinking on moving him to my 150g 5x2x2 main tank but now he's been in the same water as the sick one, since day one, and I don't want to contaminate my 150!?!
What could it be?
Should I treat both?
What should I treat with?
Should I separate them?
Should I Go bare bottom and get rid of the wood?
Could it be because I dont use primer in my water? My tap is great, I test it twice a year before and after winter, and never had issue before with 12 tanks running atm.
If you have made it this far thank you.
I really hope someone can help me.
Sincerely Mike
Here's another pic of both that looks better
I recently (1 week ago) purchased 2 little stingray pups sold to me as magdalenae or teacup stingray one being around 4" disk width and the other a little less then 6"dw. The guy had a few and sold them to me for a really good price (50$ each) wich is a steal in my area they usualy go for around 100 to 150, anyways this guy was about an hour away from me and even offered a doa (dead on arrival) warranty so I felt safe.
I went down there and picked up 2 nice ones, no apparent injuries , they were swimming around , full tail. He put them in a doubled large fish bag and added some air with a pump. Dropped them in a Styrofoam cooler and then I went on my 1 hour drive. It was a hot day around 90f so he didnt put heat pad.
I got home and did a drip system about 1 drop second from a 33 gal (36×12 footprint) I had prepped the night before ( it was holding 2 juvenile JD , a juvenile red terror and a medium convict ) So I knew the filters would be fine. Those fish we're given to my friend who has a 55g. I also added an air stone in the bags.
The water parameters are
amonia-0 : nitrite-0 : nitrate-20ppm : ph-7.2
temps 78-79 . On really hot days it gets to 81 but cools down at night back to normal gh, kh and tds are unknown.
The tank has a 1/4" of fine white reptile sand bottom that has been in an aquarium for over 2 years and it's not sharp. I also put a small piece of mopani with 3 anubias nana on it.
Hardware
1 aquaclear 300 complete 1 aqualear 150 with a sponge and filter floss, an air stone, 1 fluval 200w heater and a fluval 100w heater as backup ( the heaters have been separated with eggcrate to 1 side of the tank)
Light is a reptile basking spot with a led bulb 6500k hanging a few inch over the tank and open 8hr a day on timer.
I also only use nutrafin waste control in my water. I prime my water by letting it sit in a 45g food grade drum with the waste control, a 300w china brand heater and a pond pump with a home made sponge filter.
After about 2 hours of dripping I refilled the tank about 2gal more or less. I then netted the rays and put them in their new home. They looked good and happy moving around and playing in the air bubbles. A few hour passed I fed them, bloodworms on a rock with an elastic so they would stay on the bottom. They both seemed to eat and enjoy the worms.
From there I fed them 3 times a day with bloodworms, I did a 5 gal water change daily and I watched them for hours every day.
2 days ago when I fed them in the morning I noticed the small guy not being as playfull, he didn't go for the worms !!! That was it I knew something was up, but it looked good no marks, no sign of sickness, untill he moved to the glass. I noticed the outside perimeter of the disk on the belly had some marks like a dark spot, kinda looked like fungus or something but it was still small. I took some water and did some test. Everything was good as said before. I still did a 15 gal water change. By the end of the day it had gotten worst and took expansion and ran almost around the ring. the picture I took was the second morning sorry for the blur it passed by so fast and i didnt want to bother it to much.
So that's where I'm at !
I dunno what to do. The big guy shows no sign of anything he's as good as day one and he's less shy. I was thinking on moving him to my 150g 5x2x2 main tank but now he's been in the same water as the sick one, since day one, and I don't want to contaminate my 150!?!
What could it be?
Should I treat both?
What should I treat with?
Should I separate them?
Should I Go bare bottom and get rid of the wood?
Could it be because I dont use primer in my water? My tap is great, I test it twice a year before and after winter, and never had issue before with 12 tanks running atm.
If you have made it this far thank you.
I really hope someone can help me.
Sincerely Mike
Here's another pic of both that looks better
