Sad day...
- Thread starter Conner
- Start date
Conner;2678050; said:What the heck, I got up this morning and my female ray was dead! WTF is going on? She was eating great up until last night, after the male had died. She was fat and happy and constantly moving around.
Oh dear ... I'm sorry to hear that you lost 2 rays within a few hours !! May your ray RIP.
Is there anyway that the water was contaminated by an outside source? I doubt that it was parasitical or bacterial without any prior symptoms.
sorry dude.. I lost a flower ray yesterday too.. Only my 2nd ray I have ever lost and I kinda don't count the first one.. 
Conner what are your nitrates at? I have found through experience that it is best to keep rays in species tanks or at least build around the ray. If you try again, I recommend that you qt your retics in a separate tank for a month or two, and then, only if they are aggressive and strong, move them to the biotope tank. It is impossible to keep a tank pristine, that which newly imported rays need, if the tank is cluttered with plants, driftwood, and 3" of sand. Have you ever monitored your pH on a 24 hours sechedule? It may be fluctuating drastically if you do not have a buffer in there.
All that being said, it may very well have nothing to do with you or your husbandry, these little "tea cups" are not exactly coddled on their journey, they are monitarly cheap and thus packed tight into boxes for shipping and not paid any special attention too by wholesalers and distributors. I am by no means and expert, I just have about 4 years of experience keeping rays, I would not touch a retic if you paid me because I feel that they are not healthy to begin with and not treated well in transit thus entering too many variables that could adversely effect the little guys.
All that being said, it may very well have nothing to do with you or your husbandry, these little "tea cups" are not exactly coddled on their journey, they are monitarly cheap and thus packed tight into boxes for shipping and not paid any special attention too by wholesalers and distributors. I am by no means and expert, I just have about 4 years of experience keeping rays, I would not touch a retic if you paid me because I feel that they are not healthy to begin with and not treated well in transit thus entering too many variables that could adversely effect the little guys.
take some of the sand out of your tank..... you only want an inch at the MOST then not eaten food can go into the sand and rot... letting your water get really bad really fast
