Rays Floating on the Top - Having fun or Low O2?

[Mark Huveneers]

Here's a couple of observations for you guys:

- oxygen

By lack of oxygen my rays will swim up the side and slash around, thus causing the water to absorb oxygen and drawing my attention to put the airpump back on.

I saw my month old pup doing the floating on the top trick, it swam at the water surface and with one movement they flick out the water going into a saucer-like form that floats. This was not due to lack of oxygen, the ray was actually experimenting what its possibillities were (like exploring).

- maternal care

Nowadays I separate my young offspring, but in the beginning i once bought a 14 cm marbled pup and added her to a tank with two henleis 30cm+ and one marbled male 30cm+, the funny thing was that the henleis showed none to little interest in the pup, while the marbled male swam up to it and would always swim or lie between it and the henleis in a fatherly fashion. It was really remarkable, it looked a bit like a bodyguard.



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[DiXoN]

no increase in water changes?? were you feeding a different type of food???

nope i was doing the same water changes as usual and feeding the same foods too.
it did not just float with its disc edges breaking the water film it would swim mid level go to the top then swim back to the bottom, i got some decent ray flying shots when it did this.
i could not find any pics.

 

[Nic]

mine would swin in the middle of the tank and upside down on the top but never hovered with their top at the top of the tank..

 

[turkeyboy85]

mine would do it when i had my bubble wand right next to the edge it would float above the bubbles, when i took the bubble wand and put it more in the middle... they dont do it anymore... I think they like to have fun

 

[turkeyboy85]

here is a video of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSa4AZ-buzc

 

[skynoch]

With my airstones in the corner one of my 5 rays always will try and swim in the current above the airstones. The other rays are all active along the bottom searching for food. I'm not sure if it's play or something else but definiteley not lack of oxygen in this case.

 

[Big Daves Rays]

I have one ray out of 16 that does this. I have had 2 litters from her and a third is on the way. She only does it when the male that is the father is in the tank. I think she floats up there to get away from his advances for a bit or rest. She eats fine. I always have my air going, spray bar in my sump from my UV etc. Thats my two cents.

 

[Rosewood022]

I have experienced the same thing as Big Dave, more or less. I have one male that is being harassed by a more aggressive male. The less aggressive one will frequently float at the top to get away from him. They will be seperated shortly becuase of this problem.

Pat
Amazon Stingrays