Retic basic Q's

[MonsterMinis]

Had our lil' retic male now a few weeks. and have a few questions.

1. he eats strictly black worms, I've tried chopping/mincing earthworms and he actually seems afraid/intimidated by the smell/ect? my spiney eels, knife, and puffer gobble the worms up so I doubt their is anything wrong/bad with them. How many blackworms should I be feeding him weekly? atm I drop about 2tbs in a week and he has a fat back and is searching more diligently by the end of the week. is this good or should I be feeding him unrestricted and always have some worms in the tank? I read the sticky on converting and intend to try soon.. but never thought he'd actually be afraid of the worms...

2. I'm 99% sure he was wild caught as he was purchased by the lfs as a teacup ray. When is a good time to worm him and is prazi pro good/safe for rays as it is for the rest of my fish?

3. he is extreamely active, to the point I will find him at night up on the glass of the tank just chilling( atm he's in a 56 old oceanic so it's approx a 40B but taller) is this normal? he also likes to glide around not quite mid-level but pretty close. All the rays I see are always hanging out on the bottom forageing or buried. I'm guessing he's just content/secure/happy but I figure better to ask. and no.. no signs of illness at all. he gets a 25% wc on weds. and a 50% either sat or sund. the water stays about 78 and 0-0-15ppm or less on nitrates. enough sand to bury himself in but no more, and a large peice of flattish DW to hide under. atm no tank-mates.

Oh and his disk is approx 4-5"? he's grown abit since I first brought him home. mostly bulked up.

 

[Warrensmentor]

Sounds like things are going well! I've had my retic for 7 months now. I still give him blackworms, but I also feed 10-12 ghost shrimp per week, and when ever I think to, I get a raw shrimp from the store and feed little pieces to him. I had the same experience with refusal of earthworms. Tilapia was also rejected. I feed blackworms twice a day, and I feed enough for his back area to bulge. When I feed ghost shrimp I put 5 or 6 in and don't give any worms. Ghost shrimp are REALLY entertaining to feed. You'll find your retic to be a master hunter.

Going up on the glass is a good sign, and normal. Swimming through the water is good too IMO. Just tonight I watched for the first time my ray swimming up to the top of the water column and then swimming upside down for a bit before rotating back over. He did it several times in a row and looked like he was really enjoying himself. I'm not sure it's a behavior shown by motoro, or others, but I thinks it a great sign of health, and comfort in environment for a retic.

 

[Totroc3]

I have 7 Retics ranging in size from 4 inches to 9. I would use Prazi and Metrozidazole right away. I have found that with Retics this is very important only if they are wild caught. You can get the Metro at Angelplus.com cheap. I would buy Prazipro and use them at the same time. I would also feed much heavier like 2 tbs daily split between morning and night. I go through 2 lbs every 3 weeks. As your retic grows he/she will become a big eater and go for the night crawlers and shrimp so long as you give them in bites that their little mouths can chew. Tiny bites. It took mine a long time to go onto the other foods. They were about 6" before they started and I still have 1 stubborn female that wont eat anything but blackworms. She too is wild caught. All captive bred started eating regular foods earlier. I also think having 2 or more makes them eat more competively as they hate for the other one(s) to get the food. I also notice the better my water is the better they do. I keep my nitrates ar 5 to 10. Yeah I do massive water changes. If you get another you might try buying from Grapedinox. She breeds the retics and while you pay a bit more for captive they are healthy and happy little rays. My 4 healthiest ones are from her.

 

[cmj15]

I have a male retic as well and he is about 6" disk, but I have him feeding on cut tilapia, shrimp, a diy food, and just about everything I put in the tank, but just starve him for a day or two and try a new food, he should be hungry enough to take it

 

[MonsterMinis]

Thanks for the input guys. I will def start buying the blackworms online verse the lfs unless they will cut me a deal on buying larger quantities. Thanks for the suggestion on where I can find some more as I'de liek to add a female or 2 eventually to the dynamics ( finishing up figureing out a 300 set-up, I'm assumeing this will house 2-3 retics ?)