I'm not a pro at keeping rays, so i need some help. I have a little motoro (about 4 1/2 inches in diameter) and i've been giving him a mix of ghost shrimp and live black worms for the past couple of weeks. The little thing is a bottomless pit, so I'm at the store getting him live food every other day. Its fun to watch him eat, and its not like hes burning a hole in my pocket, I'm just worried that he isn't getting enough of whatever nutrients rays need. The guy I bought him off of told me he'd also eat this food supplement with krill (which I got), and the ray isn't going for it. Why would he eat this in the store and not with me? I got another reccomedation to try earthworm pellets, and hes not having that either. He walks right over them and begs until I drop in something that moves. Like I said, I've only tried ghost shrimp, blackworms, those krill pellets, and the earthworm pellets. How do I coax him to try this other food again, or what should I do to wean him off of exclusively live food??
Switch from live to store-bought food?
- Thread starter kibbz612
- Start date
Get him good and fat.
When he is ready cut up small pieces of grocery store shrimp or smelt and throw them in the tank. If he does not eat them, remove the leftovers. Don't feed him anything else. Do the same thing the next day and the next. If he has not eaten any of the grocery store food at the end of the third day, go back to live blackworms and ghost shrimp on the fourth day.
Repeat the process as necessary.
This is how I have trained all of my rays. A little hunger goes a long way and it usually does not take to long to get them eating more reasonably priced foods.
There are some other techniques (including marinating foods in worm juice) but, this is the one that works best for me.
Colin
When he is ready cut up small pieces of grocery store shrimp or smelt and throw them in the tank. If he does not eat them, remove the leftovers. Don't feed him anything else. Do the same thing the next day and the next. If he has not eaten any of the grocery store food at the end of the third day, go back to live blackworms and ghost shrimp on the fourth day.
Repeat the process as necessary.
This is how I have trained all of my rays. A little hunger goes a long way and it usually does not take to long to get them eating more reasonably priced foods.
There are some other techniques (including marinating foods in worm juice) but, this is the one that works best for me.
Colin
im going throught the same thing now..... but I believe I will succeed...., it will just take some time and the methods described above by colin. I think the fact that they just need to get comfortable in their new setting is half of the problem too....
i have the blackworm tray i keep in the basement fridge! its great i puy a few scoops of worms and i have them for weeks just change the wattyer daily! takes 2 minutes!
i also feed market shrip buy it on sale in a big bag lasts at least a mo9nth and only cost 15 bucks!!
what other type of seafood can i feed my rays?
i see smelts but what else
i also feed market shrip buy it on sale in a big bag lasts at least a mo9nth and only cost 15 bucks!!
what other type of seafood can i feed my rays?
i see smelts but what else
Well as soon as I got my motoro... (about 8" disc) I bought a jar of mussels... (overpriced but he likes them) frozen raw shrimp, krill and squid, I chopped up the mussels and shrimp and squid into about 1/4- 1/2 inch pieces and mixed all of those together, put them in ice cube trays, and dropped about 3-4 drops of vitachem in every "cube" on the top then froze them, now every morning I go pull a cube out, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds thats just enough to break the freeze, and throw about half in the tank in the morning, then the other half in at night! thus far he seems to be liking them! and he is getting a decent variety at every meal, and this way it makes it quicker for me to do in the morning while I rush to get ready for work. I would like to try to get my ray on new life spectrum wafers sometime as well.. I might just put one of those in the middle of each cube before freezing next time, so it absorbs some of the taste and smell and softens up some before ever reaching the tank... But i think that would about provide a complete diet.