Teacup Ray

[showjyr]

This weekend a friend of mine was making a move across country and had a young Teacup Ray(not sure of the exact species yet) that he didn't think would make the trip, and after seeing him neither did I. He doesn't look like he's been eating very well. He's skinny and the tail is very thin. He's only about 4 inches across. I said I would take him because the LFS refused and he had nowhere else to re-home him.


He's been in my community 55g for 2 days. No fish bother him and I've got him eating a little chopped earth worm. The substrate is pea stone and the temp around 79f.

I have a 29g that houses my cray but there is a divider that limits him to about 10g. Only a few endlers in the other side. The tank has Tahitian Moon sand and is over filtered with almost no decor in that side. Would he be better in there until i can get him nursed back to full health?

What else can feed to him the LFS doesn't carry frozen foods?

His stinger and tail tip looks like he may have a bit a fungus. Is it safe to use Melafix or Pimafix with rays and can these 2 be used at the same time?

Sorry for all the questions but i don't want this little guy to die on me.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[CFC]

The ray would be better off in the biggest tank right away ( i read that you have a 155 else where), they need space to move and dont do well in tanks under 100 gallons.
Frozen bloodworm and chopped earth worms will keep the ray alive but for the long term you want to get it onto a more substancial diet, prawns mussels and whitebait from a fish counter are all relished by stingrays and work out cheaper than buying foods from the local fish or pet store.

Melafix and pimafix are both safe but are you sure its fungus before you start treating? Rays shed their stingers every 4 to 6 months and the old stingers turn white before they fall off and are replaced by the new one growing underneath, they will sometimes shed a stinger prematurely if it has been damaged in transit from being caught in a net too.

Eventually you are going to need a bigger tank for the ray, a tank with a back to front width of at least 30 inches and a length of at least 6 feet is preffered.

 

[showjyr]

Well i think he may shed his stinger soon as it is white, thought that was fungus. I knew they shed the stinger but hadn't read anywhere that it would turn white and kinda fuzzy looking.

The 155g is only 24 inches front to back but it is 6 feet long and 2 feet high would this not be big enough long term?

I know there are a ton of species and many different color variants even within species but could you give me a few possibilities of species that might be common at a LFS? He is a dark gray-brown with brownish, olive colored spots/rings. I will try and post a pic but he's taken a liking to the largse hollow log in my tank and spends a lot of time in there.

 

[CFC]

A 6x2x2 isn't really considered suitable amongst the ray keeping community, you really would be suprised how much difference an extra 6" of width makes. It sounds like a motoro stingray, one of the most common and largest species with females reaching around 20" across their disc, try and get some pictures up so we can get a proper ID.

 

[cane76]

get some pics of the white fuzzy stuff too
if its skinny feed it up 2-3 times day on whatever its used too

 

[showjyr]

From doing a little searching I'm pretty sure he's a Potamotrygon reticulatus but they look so similar to me I guess he could be a motoro. I've been giving him chopped earth worm, chopped shrimp, and bloodworm that I soaked until it would sink. He jumps right on the food as soon as he finds it but doesn't seem to eat that much of it. He's become a little more active and swims up the side of the tank, kindof hops out of the water a little.

Anything else I can do to make him happier and speed up his recovery?

 

[mark7616]

yes that is a retic mate he will be ok in your 6x2x2 for a good 3 years alot of people keep retices in 6x2x2 anyways there a smaller speicies but have long tails. As for being skinny he isnt to bad just make sure you give him plenty of food. Lots of prawn or whatever you feed dont bother with bloodworm earthworms are good dont bother cutting them up just chuck them in.

 

[cane76]

can we see a full ray shot

 

[mark7616]

I would also change the substrate as it looks sharp.

 

[showjyr]

He's not eating well at all. He jumps right on food when put in the tank but repeatedly sucks it up and spits it back out. I've tried chopped shrimp, chopped earthworm, bloodworm, tubiflex worm, hikari supersoft, and tropical crisps in sizes right down to....lets say a quarter of a grain of rice.
He just doesn't seem to swollow anything just suck it up and spit it out over and over again.

I fear he may start going down hill fast if i can't get him eating correctly, PLEASE HELP!!

 

[heymickey94]

Can you post a coule more pictures up? From looking at the 2 pictures posted it looks like he is starting to get death curl. I can't really tell, but it looks like he is. If he does have death curl this means pretty certain death.

 

[showjyr]

No death curl, he just seemed more interested in the the camera than anything else. He moved in the first pic and had just started to move in the second. His disk stays perfectly flat on the sand(except when i want him to stay still) and he's been burying himself a little.

 

[cane76]

what was it feeding on before you got it?

 

[showjyr]

Lets start by me admitting I'm an idiot. I kept calling it a he but it is in fact a she....duh.

Now with that out of the way, he said that she was eating any type of worm but he also had her in with a few fish so me thinks that the others were cleaning up her meals. He had only gotten her about a month and a half ago(ordered her from the net i think) and i think she had been living off reserves.


Made the 40 minute trip to the not-so-local FS today to get some stuff and luckily they had some high quality frozen foods. I bought a package of bloodworm and what was supposed to be mysis shrimp but the lady accidentally gave me frozen brine shrimp.

Well it seems I may have found her food. I put in a marble sized chunk of the bloodworm and it only lasted about five minutes She also sucked up a pea sized chunk of them I just put in a few minutes ago.

So do i feed her until she won't eat any more or just spread it out in small portions?

 

[cane76]

glad she is eating
you cannot overfeed a young ray so feed her as much as she can eat twice a day
to get her to eat other foods like prawns soak them in bloodworm blood over night