Stingray tail need help....

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thanks for the advice guys I am the only one around I know that has kept rays so I have only learned off of sites and my own experience... I have tried frozen shrimp but she doesn't seem interested at all it just sits at the bottem of the tank and gets rotten...I have silver sides for my salt tank Ill start throwing those in there as well and Ill up the worm feeding to daily.. she loves earth worms and night crawlers if I break them up for her... where do I get prazi? will all local pet stores have them or will I have to get them off of the internet?

Trevor
 
Take the shrimp out before it gets rotten.

From my experiences, if they're taking worms you should be good. Just cut the worms up in little pieces. Then cut the shrimp, krill, tilapia, whatever other seafood into the same size pieces. Put them in a little cup and stir it up. Get the worm flavor on the seafood a bit. Eventually, they'll go for a worm bit, miss and hit a piece of seafood that has the slight taste of worm on it. They'll munch on it and before you know it, the'll be eating seafood out of your hand.
 
Learning about rays is definetly not fun. Not cheap either. I've lost thousands in rays. Captive bred is definetly the way to go, wild caught rays put you through enough to want to sell all your rays.

I don't know what's worse the stress of losing them or the stress involved in weeding out all the BS information out there. Then there's always knowing when or when not to medicate and if so what with.

Worst part is over now that you've found this place though. All the info you should need should be able to be found here or through the people that are here..... Lots of good info here, just make sure you interprit the info yourself and make decisions with that info. What worked for some may not work for others. While it's great to be able to share info with eachother we also leave ourselves open to misinterpretation.

It will be interesting to watch the transformation your ray will go through once you start getting all the bugs worked out. I know my rays act way different now that I am caring for them properly.
 
What are the monthly cares you do for your rays? Water changes? what do they eat? what are their tank mates? what is your water temp? what kind of attitives may you be adding? Do you have a RO/DI unit for your water? (I have one as well I use it for both my stingray and my reef tank)... anything like this done to your tank...Could you let me know I would really appreciate it and it would be a lot of help...

Trevor
 
If you haven't already, check out the stickies in this forum. I read them over and over and over before I got my rays. They're very helpful. That'll answer a lot of your questions.

Plus, they're written by experienced ray keepers, so the advice is solid. Sometimes, even though a person has 50,000 post on the forum, they might still be a noob just as much as you and I...they just like to say "cool fish" a lot.
 
Trevor0015;3588257; said:
What are the monthly cares you do for your rays? Water changes? what do they eat? what are their tank mates? what is your water temp? what kind of attitives may you be adding? Do you have a RO/DI unit for your water? (I have one as well I use it for both my stingray and my reef tank)... anything like this done to your tank...Could you let me know I would really appreciate it and it would be a lot of help...

Trevor
Click to expand...

Monthly cares is just basically paying attention to them. Look for any behavioral changes as they are usually the first symptom of something being wrong.

WCs are done via a drip system on the pond. I had complications with my last litter of pups. I believe the large 50% daily WCs were causing too much fluctuation in the water parameters. After seeing the difference in activity level, color, and appetite I will be installing them on all ray tanks. No more hour + daily WCs is nice too......... :)

I'm still doing 50%s every other day on the 300 gallon growout tank. Bi weekly on the pup tank (75 gallon).

Adults fed daily, pups twice daily. Main staple is smelt, shrimp, and fish fillet (either Pollock, Salmon, or Tilapia) also eat scallops, squid, pretty much any seafood. Pups get crawlers for the first few months then get transitioned on to the other rays' diet.

Temp is 77-82.

Tankmates.... Mostly Characins and a few Armoured Cats.
In pond Rhaphiodon, Florida Gar, and 2 Irwini cats.
Growout has Cynopotomus, Odoe Pike, Black Ghost Knife, Striped and Spotted Rapheal Cats, had Golden Dorado in there too but moved them out tilll the Armatus are ready to go in then everything will be added back in at the same time along with more Odoe and a Silver Aro.

Everything here is filtered with Pot Scrubbie/ Bio ball filled wet dries. Pond's mechanical pads are changed a few times a week, growouts are changed/ washed once a week.

I run pretty high flow rates on all my tanks (Both Salt and Fresh).

150 has 3600 GPH + Powerhead
225 has 3000 GPH + 1400 GPH
300 has 4700 GPH
Pond has 2 hydrive 4700s but only 1 is running currently. + 1K GPH for circulation

Attitives for ray tanks- blue bagged solor salt.

I keep Binox and Prazi Pro on hand. I've found up here in the sticks it takes days to get internet meds. This often proves fatal as it takes a very trained eye to catch symptoms, order meds, and get through a treatment before it's too late. The few days shipping can prove fatal.

No RO here. I don't have the room to premix and stabilize water. I opt for a drip as there is zero fluctuation and I don't need mixing vats for 300+ gallons of water. Any ray keeper you ask will tell you consistancy is key for PH. Much better to keep it constant then to have it drift. I used to use PH down with my first Retic but the hard water caused PH to begin shifting back up after just 12 hours. I've seen no ill effects in the last 5 years of ray keeping from hard, high PH water.

Anything I missed just ask.......
 
Nope thats a lot of useful information thanks DB Junkie... Ill try to get some prazi on hand.. and see if I can get my ray to eat other foods...

Trevor
 
Prazi is for use in fresh and saltwater. Should be able to get it at the Ark, maybe even Earl May. Otherwise any saltwater toting shop in Des Moines may have it. Then there's always the ol internet.

Good idea to have lots of bio for rays as well due to the large amount of food and ammonia involved. Juvies I shoot for 5 gallons of bio/ ray and adults 10 gallons of bio/ ray.

Don't get too frustrated with getting her onto other foods, some rays can be tricky, especially if kept alone. I had a Jag fight me for 4 months transitioning from crawlers to shrimp, took me 2 months prior to go from Blackworms to crawlers. 6 months total transition, a Motoro should cave much easier though.

Like mentioned earlier maranate in worm juice. That should help.
 
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