Ray doesnt wanna eat...(sorry kinda long)

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blonde.for.life

Candiru
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2009
329
18
48
findlay, ohio
Ok so ive had my ray for 1.5yrs now..Ive never had any serious problems/issues until about a week ago..I noticed that he wasnt eating as much as he usually does then around the middle of the week he would barely eat any shrimp which is what hes been eating since i got him. By Fri. he wouldnt eat any.. So i got night crawlers and he ate 9 of them and was full i guess cuz thats all he would eat..Today he would only eat one and hes been just laying around..hes never turned down night crawlers and hes usually very active and all over the place.. Soo im wondering what might be going on...?
Heres the set up..
155gal Bowfront(i am aware that i need to upgrade), 1 Fluval 405 (3 of 4 baskets full of ceramic rings, other basket is carbon) , 1 FX5 (full of ceramic rings and a blue filter pad)
1 Ray
5 SDs
1 Angelfish
1 African Scat
2 Small BN plecos

Heres whats changed in the last 2wks..
Its been cold so the temp in the tank has dropped from 82 to 79/80 (doubt thats it)
The other thing, which is what worries me is that my archer died of an unknown illness/injury..well he was gonna die so i put him down last saturday(10th)..His scales became lifted above his gill on the left side like there was a bump under them. Then it got red under the surrounding scales and a couple days later there was white stuff coming out from under the scales and he couldnt stay level friday night. Sat. morning i was getting another tank around to move him to but he was barely able to swim and his eyes were clouded so i just decided to put him down..Is there a chance that whatever he had if it was an illness couldve spread to the ray??

My water params are basically always the same 0 amonia, nitrites look grey so i guess im not sure about that and nitrates are 20-25, Ive done everything as i always have, I do a 40-50% WC a week(always vac the sand) and clean filters as needed(which im gonna do tomorrow) and i did a WC the day i took the archer out.
Ok i just got up and looked at him again very closely..3 of the spikes on his tail (not the barb) look odd on the ends..is it possible he couldve hit the archer w/ them? Are those actually hard enough to do damage? I guess that still wouldnt explain why hes not eating..*sigh*
Thats all ive got i guess...help...
 
nothing is worng woth your ray.maybe feeding it too much? or something to do with water issues
 
Sometimes when my ray attacks tank mates he will not eat as much that day almost like he decides if he can't eat the eartheater then he will eat nothing :screwy:

He is always back to normal pretty quickly though and really has not done this since he was a lot smaller
 
Well hopefully you guys are right..Ive never seen him even attempt to attack any fish..he'll swim up the side and go right over a fish and not do anything..however ive not seen him at night so things could always be dif. then..

@ toby..Yes Archer..Yes Brackish..Im aware of that however Ive seen some large ones in freshwater tanks and mine seemed to be doin fine in the years i had him..im not saying it was necessarily right but i dont think water conditions had much or maybe anything to do w/ what happened to him..
 
When you say that the spikes look odd, could they possibly have been bitten by tankmates? I know the SDs are getting large so perhaps they nibbled on his tail or even the scat?
 
Well it basically looks like they hit something..like the ends arent missing or anything just look kind of um not pointy lol..perhaps they were already like that and i just never noticed i dunno..
Ill admit im one of those people who sit on the floor and just watch my fish and ive never seen any of them go after the ray..normally if he goes to one side of the tank they move to the other..they always seem to keep a distance from him or watch him closely if hes near and take off if he moves. That said the larger SDs that i got from you are a bit more aggressive than the others that i have and theres always a chance that theyre messin around at night..sometimes this sh*t is so frustrating!
 
i would say if theres a little hint of nitrites, then the ray is a little stressed

not sure wht grey means on your test kit though...
 
o yeah and the scat just went in the tank yesterday..guess i didnt mention that..he was getting picked on in the other tank..he seems kinda freaked out by the ray so far..

Maybe i need a new test kit for that..it never seems to turn a color thats actually on the card..
 
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