Rays not eating after shipping

[rudy]

I always thought this was stress, but as I am sitting here watching my 1 month old ray trying to eat krill (you can actually see and hear her eating) it I realize that this is not stress. I was wondering what exactly it is? This one almost seems to have a will to live, just does not know how to do it anymore. She will try to eat all day, however will not ingest anything.
I have heard many people talk about it, however I guess I always thought it was common in Wild animals due to the fact that they have been taken out of the wild. With Captive bred fish it has got me curious.
It obviously has something to do with the ammonia in the bag. Either shipping took to long, or the fish was not starved long enough.
I was just talking to an experienced shipper at lunch and he feels it has to do with the ammonia entering their blood stream and they essentially are poisoned. Another feels that the long term exposure to the ammonia can ruin their insides and make it impossible to eat.

Any experiences, or theories...or success stories. I do not want to lose this ray, however I feel terrible watching her dying of starvation

 

[Lode]

I have a theory that the inside (stomage) of rays gets tightend during stress. I have always seen that once they start eating again, it is hard for them to swallow bigger peaces. After a few days (of streching their insides) they can handle the big stuff again.

With people you also see that they can hardly eat when there is a lot of stress. The stomage seems to be tightened.

Again this is my own theory, after watching rays for several years now, so would love to hear other theory's to. Good topic

 

[csx4236]

I think it's the ammonia as well causing the problem, I have also seen this with rays that I have had in my system for a long time and what I think caused it was chlorine in my system. Now ammonia and chlorine are very similiar and can cause the same problems, breathing heavy and loss of appetite were the symptoms I saw. In all the cases the rays stopped eating for long periods of time and it was alomost like they had to learn to eat again, they would just mouth and chew on the food and never ingest any. After a few weeks of this they would just snap out of it and start eating. I think it takes time for the internal organs to heal and then they will start to eat. The one time this happend with a new shipped ray I lost the pup and all the other times it happened to established rays in my system they all bounced back and made a full recovery. Also I have only seen this with rays under 12" in size all my larger rays never seem to be effected for long periods of time. We already spoke about this tim and your doing all you can at this point try some more food choices and good luck. Mike

 

[rudy]

I have a theory that the inside (stomage) of rays gets tightend during stress. I have always seen that once they start eating again, it is hard for them to swallow bigger peaces. After a few days (of streching their insides) they can handle the big stuff again.

With people you also see that they can hardly eat when there is a lot of stress. The stomage seems to be tightened.

Again this is my own theory, after watching rays for several years now, so would love to hear other theory's to. Good topic

Interesting theory as this would explain how rays such as tigers only seem to eat bloodworms.

In this rays case however it is definately not as she wouldn't even digest live blackworms.

 

[Lode]

But it is munching on, and willing to, eat the blackworms? If so it could be the stomage is still "closed".

 

[rudy]

But it is munching on, and willing to, eat the blackworms? If so it could be the stomage is still "closed".

The ray is the first to attack the food, however will not ingest it.

I really hope she starts quickly as she is so thin you can see every bone in her body.

 

[keepinfish]

My motoro would attempt to eat when I first introduced to the tank. I just thought that it was not use to eating larger pcs. of food, but maybe it like said above from the ammonia in the bag. Well after a few days, mine eats like a pig.

 

[Miles]

Depends on the size of the ray and how long ago it was harvested, it could have not eaten in weeks and had been hooked in the mouth last time it attempted to eat.. The wound could be swollen, making food indigestible.

I always had luck getting newly arrived rays started with blackworms, to earthworms, to krill.. maybe ghost shrimp, depending on the species.

If you have ammonia in the bag, you can see it, and smell it.. I am unsure of internal damage, but I have read that it poisons their blood, causing long-term damage or "sudden death".. the old fish myth of salt, heat, no lights, and blackworms seem to help?? I think that ammonia poisoning is in-curable if that's the actual cause.

 

[Nic]

have you tried keeping lots of black worms in the system...

 

[skynoch]

Found the same problem with a motoro I aquired six months ago. I finally got it eating myosis shrimp. To this day I still can't get it to swallow small pieces of shrimp or worms it'll try but just doesnt deem able.