Rescued Fish Today Please Help ID !!!

[itZme]

Hi,
I went to my brother's fiance's house tonight (about 3 hour drive) and rescued a bunch of huge fish that were WAAAYYY overcrowded in a couple of 20 gal US tanks. Also they had just purchased a Stingray of some sorts and nobody there knows exactly what it is.
The original owner of the aquariums is on an "extended vacation" at a local correctional institution. I told them I would rescue everything for them so I ended up with 3x 10US gal with filters, heaters, hoods etc... 2x 20US gal with iron stand and all filters hoods etc...

Right now my main concern is this stingray. I took half of the water from the 20 gal and put it into a Rubbermaid 20 gal container with a lid and a sponge filter plugged into my cig. lighter through a power inverter to get it home alive (3+ hours). I have set up one of the 10's and put him in his original GREEN water since I don't even know if it is a salt or freshwater species. I have a filter and heater running and he seems content but I would like to have the 20gal all setup for him ASAP.

Please help identify the species. I am calling on all of the oddball specialists like Sir Minion , CFC , Lady Minion etc...
If I don't get a reply tonight I will leave him in the 10 with green water and post in oddballs tomorrow for ID.

There are also 2 large (6") oscars, a large (5") JackDempsey, another large unidentified (3-4") and a common pleco (4") that were housed in ONE 20 gal !!!

Thanks in advance for your help,
--itZme

 

[Torrean]

I am no expert but I'd look into maybe umm hillstream loach aka butterfly pleco

I'm pretty sure that's not it but it's the only thing that came to mind, freshwater wise.


edit: If I were you i'd double post this in oddballs too.


http/rds.yahoo.com/S=96062857/K=butterfl...2&ei=ISO-8859-1


I was wrong sorry


Here's a decent site on fw rays maybe you can find him there

http/www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/5590/care.html

 

[SirMinion]

I'm moving this to Oddballs where people who know about this sort of thing lurk.

 

[itZme]

SirMinion: Thank you for moving to the more appropriate area!
I have been searching the internet for info. If it helps, when I was syphoning the water into the tank from his temporary tub I accidentally got a decent amount on my lips and it had no salt taste at all.


Torrean: Thx for the link ... much good info there as far as feeding advice. I got it to eat some frozen bloodworms already and will go get some earthworms tomorrow.


This thing is really cool

-- itZme

 

[Torrean]

I'm glad I could help. I was sort of grasping at straws to get the poor little guy into some clean water. I hope he makes it. Just a thought. Could you take a tupperwear lid or something and put a small amount of water in it. cover the bottom. then let it dry this may show if there is salt in the water. JUST A THOUGHT.

 

[Torrean]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34728

Is this your guy?

 

[CFC]

Thats the fish, Potamotrygon laticeps. To be honest i'm suprised it has survived this long, freshwater rays are fragile at the best of times and small specimins such as that one tend to die if you look at them the wrong way, P.laticeps is also an especially fragile species. If you intend to keep it you are going to need an absolute minimum of a 120g tank (4x2x2) which will need either a sump or a couple of large canister filters for filtration. Water quallity should be maintained at the highest quallity at all times, any uneaten food should be removed within one hour of feeding time and nitrates should never be allowed to exceed 20-30ppm, 25-50% water changes weekly are recomended for which you will also need a water conditioner that neutralises heavy metals as well chlorine/chloramine as rays are extreemly sensative to copper, this also means you must never use any standard aquarium medications in the tank that your ray lives in as most are copper based.
For tankmates large peacefull catfish and oddballs are generally ok but as a rule fish with aggressive tendencies like Cichlids should be avoided, also plecs should never be placed with rays as they tend to develop a taste for the slime which coats the rays disc, if the slime is removed and the skin underneath is comprimised infection can quickly set in and kill the ray, remember no meds.
For now i would get the ray into the largest tank that you have using as much of the rays original water as possible and then top the rest up with fresh conditioned tapwater.
On another note be very careful not to get stung by the rays tail while transfering it, stingray wounds are extreemly painfull and require hospital treatment and a long course of antibiotics, stingrays are still the major cause of deaths and limbs having to be amputated in the Amazon region where fast hospital treatment is not available.

 

[Allix]

wow! i never thought rays could sting! (*realise rays are called stingrays for a reason * )

Well done for rescuing him, im beginning to love odd ball fish and a ray is somthing id consider but after reading CFC's post, they are very high maintainence fish (kinda like men, and i cant have 2 men on the go )

Good luck, post some pics if you can

 

[Torrean]

I believe you can trim the stinger kinda like you do your fingernails. DO RESEARCH BEFORE YOU TRY THIS.

EDIT: can we get an update please I've been worried about the little guy.

 

[itZme]

Sorry for the delay in updates. I rearranged some things here and managed to free up a 29 gal for the ray. (it's the biggest I have available for now)
He seems to be doing very well. I have one well-seeded HOB filter + one brand new HOB and a few bags of new sand (that I got with these rescued tanks) in there for him. He has eaten frozen Spirulina-enriched Brine Shrimp, live earthworms, some frozen Ciclid Chow and is cruising around quite a bit now. The sand seems to be perfect for him since he gets going and glides around on it easily. The guy that I got all this stuff from had some white and some blue sand that was still new in the bags so I used it for now. It's kinda unnatural looking but I think the ray doesn't mind.
I think my wife is warming up to the idea of a 125gal in the living room for it and a few top dwellers!
I appreciate all the advice from everyone who helped and hope that you get some satisfaction just knowing that you helped keep this guy alive.
This is a great community and I hope to be a part of it for years to come.
I will post some pics when I get time.

Thanks again,
itZme

PS. I'm not going to mess with the stinger, I will just watch myself when handling it. I have moved him 3 times so far and just put a large tupperware container on the bottom laying on its side and then coax him into it with a net. then I can dump out most of the water and he just stays at the bottom of the container till i can lower it into the new location and he swims out unharmed.

 

[keane]

Great stuff itZme .

Just out of curiosity, what happened to the Oscars, JD and other unknown??

steve

 

[itZme]

Well, I know there are some people around here who will probably feel that I am doing more of a disservice to these fish than helping them at the current time but here is the status of the large fish that I drove 6-7 hours to save. (the house owner told me that I could have the tanks and she would "just put all the fish in a bucket and cover it up for a few days till they were dead"
First of all I don't think you could've fit all these into one bucket and secondly the thought of that just makes me physically ill .

I have identified all of them now and there are:

2- 6-7" albino Oscars (looks like a pair by the way they stay with each other and rub against one another all the time. Haven't tried sexing them yet)

1- 7" regular Oscar (hangs around the other 2 and they never fight even while feeding)

2- 4-5" Jack Dempseys ( have seen them once grab each other by the lips and " fight" over the hollow log where one hides constantly. Don't know if it is just saying "get off my turf" or they are really fighting for the real estate but nobody has scales missing or any signs of stress afterwards.)

1- 6" Pleco. Looks to be common ( little darker than any commons I have had though. Kinda black with lighter lines )

As of Tuesday I have cleaned the entire tank (29 gal) they were in and bought new gravel and another HOB filter for it. So now there is a mature sponge filter, a powerhead on a UGF and a new Aqua Clear 150 HOB with mature filter material inside. I know they need more room but the LFS said they didn't want them and I would like to keep them so we are looking into getting larger tanks here.
When I went to get them there was an UGF in it with a nice powerhead but that was all the previous owner had in this 29 with about 40" of very large fish. It was disgusting how dirty the gravel and water was. I could not believe the scum that coated everything (it was red, slimey and about 1/4" thick)
I feel that I am helping these fish and I know that they are not in optimal conditions but I will take much care with them and do water changes every 5-7 days until I get the money together for their new place. ( no flaming please )

That's where I am right now with the saga of the unexpected guests. Oh yeah, as far as feeding I have gotten them all to eat Cichlid Staple pellets, Shrimp Pellets and some cucumber also. The Pleco is loving the algae wafers and cucumber and the Oscars/JD's are loving anything I put in there once they get over the fear that they will be netted again. (I think they were traumatised by the move even though I was as gentle as possible) I have to back away after dropping the food in or they just kinda watch it float around and you can tell they want to go grab it.

Thanks for your concern and advice,
-- itZme
-- Kevin

 

[Paul_MTS]

Great work Kevin.

good luck with them all in the future!

 

[SirMinion]

Good luck with this, mate.
Even though they're not yet in ideal conditions, at least they're with someone who cares and is making an effort to improve matters.

Well done.

 

[andywg]

Fantastic work. Keep it up

Only problem I have found with buying a bigger tank...it's never big enough...