Transferred my retic to new tank....

[Conner]

And now she's not eating.

I just got her last Friday. She was eating like a champ until I transferred her over to the new 125g tank I just got running yesterday. She still goes after the blackworms, but she doesn't actually eat any that I can tell, and she's really skinny today. I'm leaving the lights off, and the temp is right at 82F. There isn't any substrate in the tank, as you'll see in the pics, and I think that's freaked her out a bit, since she spent the last 5 days on sand and could bury herself if she got spooked. I dropped 50 ghost shrimp in there today to see if she might go after them, and it did look like maybe she ate one, but it was hard to tell. I even dropped in a couple of small cut earthworms, but she seemed scared of them.

So do you think it will just take a day or two for her to relax and start eating again, or do I need to try to do anything in particular? Any suggestions?

 

[xiahaolong168]

nice! what size tank?

 

[Conner]

125g. Has a 30g sump. I've spent the last 3-4 days trying to get the overflows to stop sounding like the Niagara Falls. I finally accomplished that this afternoon, but it was extremely frustrating.

Now I'm just worried about the little girl. I'm hoping she'll start eating very soon and start to put on some weight.

 

[xiahaolong168]

cool. good luck! and i really like the aquascaping.

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

Nice tank!

I would give her more time. Lights out and you could even cover the sides of the tank if you like...

 

[Conner]

Thanks for the compliments on the tank. I really like the driftwood I put in there. I like the river rocks as well (gotten for free out of my backyard - score!).

I am hoping to put either dark brown or black sand down, and have a couple piles of the river rocks. Then I'll have the large trunk-like piece of driftwood standing upright on the bottom, and it'll be how I want it.

I'll be leaving the lights off for the next couple days, I guess, except to check and see if she's eating. There's a pile of blackworms, a couple of pieces of earthworm (which I'll remove in the morning if they're not eaten), and 50 ghost shrimp for her if she decides she's hungry.

Here's a pic of the tank before I added water, so you can see what the driftwood will, ideally, eventually look like. I also took out the long skinny horizontal one in the pics.

**Also, do you think I should go ahead and transfer my 2 pbass (3" and 5"), and IT dat (4") to this tank, or should I wait until the ray is eating for sure?

Thanks.

 

[spotfin]

I would set the 125 up however you are going to (with sand, wood, etc) while keeping her in the qt tank. Once she has fattened up and the main tank is cycled, move her in.

 

[Conner]

She's already in the 125g tank. I cycled it using scrubbies from my other 125g tanks' sump, and some feeders. I transferred her over because there were too many other fish competing for food with her in my community 125g tank. I wanted to make sure she didn't have any competition for food for a little while.

 

[Tims R]

I would be carefull of the rocks they may be changing water hardness and ph levels in your tank. I had that problem with store bought rock now its just paper weights. lol. My retic loves bloodworm and thats all he eats. I thaw it out in water then use a turkey baster to place it under his disk. He now climbs part way up baster to eat. Good luck.

 

[Conner]

I checked the rocks with vinegar and boiled them prior to putting them in the tank, so they should be safe. I have them in my other 3 tanks that have been running for over 1.5 years, so I'm not worried about that.

When I go to feed the (live) blackworms, I use a long pipette. She grabs at the tip and wraps around it, but after a couple of seconds she swims away from the pile of worms, and doesn't appear to have eaten any. I'm going to try feeding her again in a few minutes, hopefully she'll decide to eat some.