Ray feeding schedule

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
this is a joke right?
I feed my rays 20 rosey feeders a day on top of that I power feed 3x a day of 2 scoop of soup spoon of live healthy blood worms.

6am- BW
1130am-BW
4pm-bw
8pm 20 rosey feeders

waterchange-every 3 days

fyi and yes im now going threw 1lb of bw and 300 rosey feeders a week.
will you starve your kids every other day:popcorn:?
 
Every other day seems a little light to me too. My water quality issues aren't what most people would consider a problem any way. I am trying to get Nitrates from between 10-20 to between 0-10. I am currently running an experiment with some plants and some purigen so I will wait until the purigen needs recharging before I change any feeding schedules.

This is exactly why I started this topic I was hoping to get some insight on what works for everyone :)

I won't even get into a discussion about feeding feeder fish or starving children :popcorn:
 
The high metabolism doesn't only apply in our tanks, I'd be amazed if they didn't eat several times a day in the wild. Those WC rays Shawn just posted all have thick tails - that's not because the guys that caught them are feeding them shrimp and pellets, it's because the rays are eating well in the wild.

I think I know my rays pretty well. I know they stop eating when they've had enough, I know they don't like to eat food that's sat in the tank more than half an hour and I know they're ravenous when I come back 12 hours later. To me I believe this means they're very ready to eat twice daily and if I only came back 48 hours later they'd not be amused. They have no apparently issues with digestion - poop breaks up easily with no lumps left by the time it hits mechanical filtration - and my tanks are always clean.
 
I would imagine in the wild they would be grazers eating small amounts when ever they got the chance through the day and night.

I have fed twice a day for a long time but I think I like feeding once per day more. That may change if I am ever expecting pups from a female etc...
 
I know agreeing with you completely contradicts what I just said but I do. I know rays have very quick metabolism and require small feedings often but I'm just saying with my feeding pattern I still see a healthy active ray. Tail is still thick and is still a hearty ray in my opinion. I am going to try and feed more foods with less mess because not only does massivore make a mess, it smells awful.

I have tried pieces or market shrimp but he just rips it apart and makes a mess. I'm gonna throw in some worms these next few days and go from there I guess.
 
A trick cjfrontlovr just told me about is to drill a whole through a piece of shrimp (or other non excepted food item) and tie a nightcrawler through it like a necklace. I got my rays eating shrimp and smelt in just a few days doing this :)

 
I'm not gonna go into feeding feeder fish to my rays either, but yes, I do agree with feeding everyday, I just worry bout the fatty liver disease as well
 
Thanks for the advice!

My current problem is the large silver arowana I have likes to steal food before it hits the bottom. I went out and got myself a PVC pipe and now I just drop the food right in front of my ray to the point where he comes flying across the tank when he sees the white pipe in the tank lol.

Like I said though I will get my ray on some other less messy foods and feed daily if not twice daily.
 
It's a double edged sword.

I believe that if you want to keep a ray from getting fat you'd think it would be more ideal to feed several smaller meals throughout the day rather then less frequent/more food. IF they're metabolism is so fast I'd suspect they'll begin storing fat fast if not fed often enough. Start letting them gorge every few days and it should be good conditions for massive fat storage.

SO, if you feed smaller more frequently what happens? The monster of the tank comes to life and soon the smaller, weaker rays don't get to eat :(

BIG healthy rays will beat the crap out of eachother without frequent enough feedings.
 
DB junkie said:
It's a double edged sword.

I believe that if you want to keep a ray from getting fat you'd think it would be more ideal to feed several smaller meals throughout the day rather then less frequent/more food. IF they're metabolism is so fast I'd suspect they'll begin storing fat fast if not fed often enough. Start letting them gorge every few days and it should be good conditions for massive fat storage.

SO, if you feed smaller more frequently what happens? The monster of the tank comes to life and soon the smaller, weaker rays don't get to eat :(

BIG healthy rays will beat the crap out of eachother without frequent enough feedings.
Click to expand...

That makes total sense when you think about even humans trying to lose weight. You want to eat several small meals and never before bed etc...
 
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