Ray feeding schedule

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I feed once a day, nothing regular in the kind of food or the amount or time.

I can grab 2-3 lbs of shrimp, thawed them out and dump it. The next day, I can grab a handful of pellets (I mix massivore, cichild's gold, ken's stuff, algae stuff in one big bucket) and dump it. The next day, I may want to chop some smelt and dump it. The next day I may grab a 30-40 nightcrawlers and dump it.

Sometime I feed before going to work, sometime I feed when I get home. It seems to work well, I have 7 juvies and adult rays in the 600 and they're getting along just fine. The 7 rays ranging from 10 - 17"

stan
 
vamptrev said:
I have a hard time beliving these once a day feedings or less are good for the ray. In the wild they are eating all day long (or atleast trying to). Do your rays ever stop moving in your tank? They shouldnt be...They are always on the prowl for food. Why would it be any diff in the wild?

When scientists open up a ray they always find food in their stomachs
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My rays are always active and moving around. No prblems feeding just one time a day. They eat, talapia, market shrimp (sometimes loeded with pellets), worms, thome grown feeder cichlids and then from time to time Ill drop in whole (head and all) alaskan prawns.

All the rays always have a good size butt and fat tail base..

Im sure mine will eat more than one time a day, but just as you said, "In the wild they are eating all day long (or atleast trying to). Even if they try to eat all day in the wild, that doesnt mean they get to... I also decided to only feed one time a day simply due to the fact I want to match what amount of food I think they really get in the wild.
Like I said, they are doing great only being fed one time a day, very active. I also do not feed on Sundays (water change days). Mine are always growing, healthy, and active. Tails are fat and I feel my schedule of feeding is working great. I dont have to worry about liver problems with getting to much fatty foods and my water slways stays were it should be.

I do not agree with only feeding every other day. That I do have a problem with. But in my exp, rays do just as good being fed one time a day as they do twice a day. And the water stays alot better and has to be changed less, which is alot better for them than having water that has to be changed every three days due to high bio load in the tank.

But everyone has their own way of doing things and has their own plan that they think works best for them and their stock...
 
sorry i meant to say that i dont agree with feeding "less" then once per day. i think that once per day should be a minimum... this is just my opinion
 
flamenco-t said:
I feed once a day, nothing regular in the kind of food or the amount or time.

I can grab 2-3 lbs of shrimp, thawed them out and dump it. The next day, I can grab a handful of pellets (I mix massivore, cichild's gold, ken's stuff, algae stuff in one big bucket) and dump it. The next day, I may want to chop some smelt and dump it. The next day I may grab a 30-40 nightcrawlers and dump it.

Sometime I feed before going to work, sometime I feed when I get home. It seems to work well, I have 7 juvies and adult rays in the 600 and they're getting along just fine. The 7 rays ranging from 10 - 17"

stan
Click to expand...

Thats a bunch of food for 7 rays. I have 7 in my big tank and they have trouble killing 2 lbs, and 3 of them are 16" or better.
 
I honestly was feeding every other day because I was having issues with cloudy water and was not having the time to do 3 or 4 water changes a week. (bucket method). I FINALLY got myself an Aqueon water changer and am doing water changes 3x a week now and my water is crystal clear. Like I mentioned the fact that I feed only massivore is probably why my water gets so cloudy and tank gets so messy.

With a different less messy food and more water changes I will up the feedings to once or maybe twice a day and see if I notice a difference.
 
I also have 18" datnoid, 2 -12" tinfoil barbs, 2 - tigrinus (22", 16"), 2 pacman catfish (23") all in the same tank :) they all get to share
 
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