Very sad news!!!

Freshwaterfishlover

Exodon
MFK Member
Jul 5, 2019
88
28
26
39
Maybe someone swallowed a frozen cube and died. IMO, you don’t feed enough for even the gar to live. I won’t even mention tank size. Live and learn right. Sorry you lost them.
Ok your allowed your opinion.
 

Oscar Mike

Piranha
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2010
642
173
76
CA
Ok your allowed your opinion.
Bloodworms are meant to be fed as a treat and is not a balanced diet. Compare the min protein in bloodworms vs NLS pellets...

Omega One frozen bloodworm cubes
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein (min) 6.3%
Crude Fat (min) 0.8%
Crude Fiber (max) 0.3%
Moisture (max) 91.2%

Hikari Bio-pure frozen bloodworm cubes
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 6.0% min
Crude Fat 0.5% min
Crude Fiber 0.9% max
Moisture 89.0% max
Phosphorous 0.01% min

San Francisco Bay Brand bloodworm cubes
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude Protein 3.5% min
Crude Fat 0.3% min
Crude Fiber 0.7% max
Moisture 93.5% max
Ash 0.8% max
Phosphorus 0.1% min

NLS Tropical fish pellets
Guaranteed Analysis:
Protein (Min.) 37%
Fat (Min.) 8%
Fiber (Max.) 7%
Moisture (Max.) 10%
Ash (Max.) 10%
Vitamin A (Min.) 10,000 IU/Kg
Vitamin D (Min.) 3,500 IU/Kg
Vitamin E (Min.) 400 IU/Kg
 

Oscar Mike

Piranha
MFK Member
Oct 9, 2010
642
173
76
CA
From Fishkeeping.co.uk (relevant parts in bold)

The second common way in which this can occur is when other factors cause the bacteria in an established filter to die off or fail to cope. This can happen for any of the following reasons:

-Something blocking the filter
-A prolonged power cut of more than a couple of hours
-Accidentally forgetting to dechlorinate tap water before using it for a water change
-A consequence of certain types of medications used to treat illnesses in the fish
-Consistent overfeeding or failing to remove uneaten food and excess waste regularly
-Death of one or more fish whose bodies are decaying somewhere in the tank
-Overstocking or introducing too many new fish at a time


The third major cause of unexpected ammonia and nitrite spikes is "old tank syndrome". This arises when tanks are not given regular partial water changes and are simply topped up instead when water evaporates. Over time nitrates build up, carbonates deplete and the water acidifies. Testing the pH will confirm this, as "old tank syndrome" usually causes a gradual lowering of pH. When pH drops to a low level, below pH 6, the beneficial bacteria can become dormant or even die, with the result that ammonia and nitrite begin to accumulate and fish start to suffer.

If you have very soft water with a low level of carbonate hardness (kH) this can happen quite rapidly so regular partial water changes are absolutely vital if you have this kind of water. One of the signs that a tank may be on the verge of "old tank syndrome" is when new fish are added and seem to immediately become unwell or die very soon afterwards when existing stock appear to be fine. This is because existing fish have become gradually used to the high nitrates and low pH but the new fish introduced from healthy tanks find it too much of a shock and rapidly decline as a result.
 

Leo Messi

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 14, 2015
335
549
390
Switzerland
1) That tank is way too small for the amount of fish in it.

2) You've had the motoro for a year and 7 months? It looks almost pup-size. Hasn't grown, which should tell you that the food you've been feeding it is nothing but a little snack (it's honestly not even that). Blood worms are absolute trash food for rays. You can feed them to newborn pups to get them on food but even then you should get them off it and on an actual protein-rich meaty diet asap.

A healthy stingray can grow an inch a month in the first ~12 months of it's life.
 

Gpdriftwood

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2017
632
1,162
1,144
1) That tank is way too small for the amount of fish in it.

2) You've had the motoro for a year and 7 months? It looks almost pup-size. Hasn't grown, which should tell you that the food you've been feeding it is nothing but a little snack (it's honestly not even that). Blood worms are absolute trash food for rays. You can feed them to newborn pups to get them on food but even then you should get them off it and on an actual protein-rich meaty diet asap.

A healthy stingray can grow an inch a month in the first ~12 months of it's life.
Glad u chimed in. Sounds like they staved, and we're under-filtered also. O.p.- still sorry for your loss. I lost a couple motoros when I started keeping rays also. Same reasons. Very poor diet (and not close to enough food), and severely under filtered. Four of my 6-7" that I have at the moment eat a dozen night crawlers, shrimp, and some tilapia every single day. I suggest way more research, and consideration of how much it costs to properly house and feed rays before u try again.
 

Leo Messi

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 14, 2015
335
549
390
Switzerland
Glad u chimed in. Sounds like they staved, and we're under-filtered also. O.p.- still sorry for your loss. I lost a couple motoros when I started keeping rays also. Same reasons. Very poor diet (and not close to enough food), and severely under filtered. Four of my 6-7" that I have at the moment eat a dozen night crawlers, shrimp, and some tilapia every single day. I suggest way more research, and consideration of how much it costs to properly house and feed rays before u try again.
Yeah I didn't mean to sound aggressive or so, but I can't help myself with cases like this and really hope people learn from it. I myself have done similar mistakes when I had my first rays. I still remember, was at the facility of an importer in Germany, picking up 10 wild discus and for the first time ever, saw a pair of wildcaught freshwater stingrays there, a pair of original Leopoldis. I was totally in love with them, but didn't know a single thing. Went home, fast forward ~2 months later, a day before my birthday, my girlfriend told me I've got to go to pick up a package asap without telling me whats in there. Well guess what, that pair of Leopoldi stingrays was in there. Me, being young and dumb, didn't do enough research on the food part, fed them bloodworms and artemia. And didn't even have a tank big enough, I had a ~260g tank back then. They grew maybe half an inch in the ~6 months I had them, but I fed them a lot so at least they weren't skinny and I eventually gave them to a guy with a much bigger tank that had more experience and later on they started to grow a little better.
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store