Stingray Feces

[Totroc3]

I have 4 Motoro rays and 1 Retic that are all eating black worms and earthworms. They are fairly new and all 4 are under 6 inches. I am working on getting their diet to be more varied but they are stubborn little suckers. They are in a 180 Gallon tank that has been up for over a year and has very good water parameters.

My questions have to do with what their feces should look like. Mostly they are dark brown and curly, but about once or twice a day I get some white too. I have put a lot of weight on them in the two months I've had them but I am concerned about the feces.

So far I have treated twice with PraziPro for 7 days each time. I also did 7 days with Metronidazole concurrent with the PraziPro the second time. I am still getting the white stringy stuff occasionally. Is this normal or should I treat again?Any advice on how to treat exactly would be appreciated. I love these little guys and want to do the best for them. Thank you in advance!

 

[Just Toby]

Sounds fine to me.

The curly pooh is normal and due to their very primitive gut.

Try adding some variety to the food with small worms from a safe source like a tackle shop (not a fertilized garden) some krill superba or smaller Pacifica and see if they will take some hiker carnivore pellets.

Variety Is the key and I think too many feed small bloodworms for too long.

Mussel can be chopped

 

[Totroc3]

Believe me I do try all these foods repeatedly. I end up scooping them out after a couple hours. I have tried the method of soaking the foods in bloodworms too. I can try not feeding for a day and them resume with new types but have been reluctant to do so since they were skinny when I purchased them and have only fattened up withing a couple of months.

My bigger question had to do with the bi-colored waste they were putting out. Is it acceptable to have a bit of white curly feces or should it only be dark?

 

[toehead11183]

anyone have pics? i never saw my rays poop
it was 2 years into keeping clown loaches before i saw them do it

 

[Just Toby]

The poop will be coloured by what the eat, mine eat all sorts so it tends to come out all different colours....worms seems to make the most mess though.

 

[george09]

not sure if its relivent to your as ive only had mine 3 days her poo started brown and has gone white but ive only fed her silver sides. may be the reason as to why yours are white.

 

[THEcreep]

I feed mine primarily nightcrawlers and the feces are primarily black or brown with the occasional white bit to it if it helps.


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[dparks87]

Rays have a short and simple digestive tract with a spiral valve that creates that typical spiral shaped poop. It would be great if you could post some pictures of your rays so we could see the condition they are in. If they are thick and fat you can start trying to get them acclimated to taking other food sources other than live. If you are feeding these rays heavily and they are not putting on weight than you know internals are the problem and though I have personally had success with both prazi and metro I find internal treatments much more effective than treating the water column itself.

If you are really concerned with ridding your rays of possible internals I find that a medicated food or food soaked in a epsom salt solution works best. Since your rays are not accepting prepared food at the moment medicated dry or frozen is out of the question at the moment. You can dissolve a tablespoon of epsom salt in tank water and soak your black worms in it prior to feeding. This is not the most effective method as the worms will not take in to to much of the salt however it is better than nothing. You can also inject small fish or earth worms and other meaty food items with a epsom salt solution. This method works very well and insures a good concentration of the salt will enter the rays gut. (You can do this with metro to and even garlic works well)

Another option is to gut load feeder items with flake food that has been soaked in epsom salt. This is another great option as good gut loaded food items promote overall better health, so this is a two birds with one stone method.

Back to the topic of breaking these guys onto new foods. The best way is to fast for a short while. Then offer food, I prefer to start with pellets, that have been put in a bag with market shrimp, tilapia, catfish or similar and left in the fridge overnight or for at least several hours until the pellets are moist with the juice from the meaty food. I would then offer the bag as a sort of medley, more often than not the hungry rays will slurp up a pellet hear and there and eventually you can simply acclimate to using less and less meaty foods and hopefully more pellets. Every ray will react different and be observant in regards to making sure your rays ARE eating something. More times that not the ray owner breaks far before the ray and live feeding are continued. It is true that these fish burn through food. However, a healthy ray can still be fasted and turned onto new foods without issue. Just use your better judgement and common sense and you should be fine.


GET US SOME PICTURES!!!

 

[MFNRyan]

Mine is doing sort of the same thing as the OP is mentioning. She eats little chunks of shrimp, blood worms, black worms, and red wigglers. I just moved her to a bigger tank. Which I am doing as she grows out. Also my first ray.. Her poop is always dark and spiraled.. but today for the first time ever she has a long string of poop with clumps of dark in it. I also put a very thin layer of playsand in the tank with her. IDK how to tell if it's harming her slime coat or not.. but the edge of her two fins uder the disc kind of have string looking thins to it and her tail.. looks like sun burnt skin coming off to me.... idk if some of the junk in the tank is sticking to her or what... the sand is very soft and she does not have any red or dots under her.. so i don't know at all. What can you do to determine if the slime coat is damaged or if the sand is bothering the ray? For the first time ever my ray started burying herself in the sand.. she never did that in her last tank.

 

[Just Toby]

She does look quite skinny to me. Keep The food going in and keep testing the water