questions for FLOWER keepers

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
thanks for the replies. i guess that the key is that they dont always have to be full... i always thought that keeping them full was important. ill let her thin out a little then by not gorging her on what she likes and im assuming she will learn to eat anything eventually. hopefully she will learn to eat pellets too! i was spoiled by my male flower who made quick progress and was on pellets in 14 days after taking him out of quarentine!
 
For my Flower rays, I only hand fed them with frozen bloodworms during 2 weeks in quarantine. Once released them into the pond, they're on their own. Just throw plenty of live shrimps and let them doing the hunting. 1" to 1.5" growth rate per month really satisfy me.
 
my experience is with motoro so it may not apply as i think flower may be more picky eaters than motoro. My theory is , as long as she's eating , be persistent and sooner or later if that's the only choice she has , she will eat it in quantity.

omojena;3183282; said:
i have a female flower rays that i have kept in quarentine for about 90 days. during that time i have fattened her up really well on canadian night cralwers. i have tried repeatedly to get her to eat shrimp, krill, silversides, etc repeatedly with no luck. i decided that i would put her into my main tank so she could join my 4 motoros and male flower. the male flower eats ANYHTING like a champ!!! it was my theory that she would learn to eat by watching the other rays. since her introduction to the main tank i have been feeding her market shrimp cut into chunks with a hole peirced in the middle... in the hole i thread a night crawler and tie it in knots. she has been readily eating the chunks of shrimp with worms tied to them. i have begun only adding the shrimp as of late without the worms but she will only eat 1, 2, or 3 chunks and ignore the rest. she will not get a full belly unless i tie the worms on. she has been accepting the shrimp for about a week now but ever 2 or 3 days i have to give her a large feeding with worms tied on to ensure she stays robust.

my questions are: has anybody else experienced this with their flowers? do they take a new food and accept it but not eat it greedily? if so... how long did it take for the flower to begin to eat the new food greedily and stay fat and robust? what techniques/prepared foods have you had success with in getting the flower to eat readily?

thanks!
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As Nic said, if she's eating shrimp, she's doing great. I had a heck of a time getting my first female flower to eat anything, but now she attacks food like the other three. I know with mine too they don't seem to eat nearly as much other food as they do with nightcrawlers; all four go nuts as soon as the nightcrawlers hit the water, and don't have nearly the same feeding reaction with shrimp or squid.

I also try to not stuff the rays too often; once a week they'll have a day where they get a ton of food, but they'll have a day or two of no food after that, and other days it'll be a couple small feedings all day.

To the others who have nothing to add to the thread but just feel like getting your post count up, Why?
 
update. she is now eagerly eating the market shrimp. she hasnt had a worm in a week and is still looking fat. she is starting to chew on krill but hasnt eaten any yet. ill keep you all posted.
 
Wow totally missed this for some reason. I've only had the one flower but had a hell of a time with her. Her past owner had tried starving a few times without success and I tried a couple times without success. I then tried blending foods and soaking and as soon as she accepeted them I'd try to go eclusively to the new food. She would go back to not eating. It took over 2 months of mixing worms with shrimp and slowly decreasing the worms and upping the shrimp. She now will eat shrimp twice a day with no problems.
Btw I do think it's allright to miss a day here or there on feeding if your out of town but I think it is way better for a ray to eat every day if not twice a day. A healthy ray will have no problem doing this. This does not mean stuffing them twice a day.
 
looks great.... seriously sometimes you need to just try and do things... No Fear is the way to go with rays... only way to really learn ;)
 
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