Blue Spotted Stingrays

[pieceman]

hi, i have a Blue Spotted stingrays but i cannot make it to eat anything except Live Fresh water ghost shrimp. I have already tried frozen shrimps, chopped squid, and small fish. But none of them worked for me. Any suggestion would be helpfull. Is this the only thning that the stingrays eat. It's hard to provide him live shrimp every day.

Any suggestion??. thank you

 

[lux_06]

well id say that the fact its only eating live food is a big clue as to how it wants to feed, i was under the impression stingrays were opertunisitic scavenger feeders so picking a big of dead squid of the bottom of the tank should work fine. thats how we catch em at the local boat ramp, squid head floated onto the sand under a full moon...

ive got zero experiance keeping them but id try to half burry some squid or silversides and kind of hide them in the sand for him to discover on his own.

i dunno really hopefully some others will have more info for ya, but id also suggest asking the aggressive and fish only forum this question as there'd be more people who have kept them to give you an answer.

adam . good luck

 

[2004jeepoutlander]

what about krill with garlic?

 

[Amphiprion]

Unfortunately, you have one of the most difficult ray species. They rarely do well, but if yours is actually accepting live foods, then I would continue with that regimen (and I would attempt to vary it, as well with live crabs, etc). Also, what size tank do you have for this species? It needs a big tank with a large surface area and plenty of swimming room.

 

[jmaneyapanda]

agreed with amphiprion- these rays usually die in captive care from starvation or improper housing. Try silversides for sure- they are a stinky soft fish which can appetize the ray. Also, try to get some black worms (live) or even try bloodworms or earthworms. These occasionally work with rays. If using earthworms, be sure to empty thier GI tract before feeding. Yeah, it's gross, but the stuff inside can cause real issues in the underwater world.

 

[pieceman]

thanks for your replys, this ray is in a 100g tank. i have a few live rock in it but i moved the rockes to one side, so it has some space to move and look for food. i did put squids at the bottom but it refused to eat i also tried some clams and it didnt work either.

I have never tried the krill with garllic and i dont know how it is done??

The thing is that if the Rays get hungry so why would it refuse to eat the avalible food??

 

[jmaneyapanda]

the answer is stress. stress will cause these fish to starve themselves to death. make sure you have an ultra fine substrate for them to bury in.

 

[Amphiprion]

Unless this individual is tiny , then your tank is far too small. Under such circumstances, it may even begin to refuse live foods due to, as jmaneyapanda said, stress.

 

[ClamIAm]

The key is patience with any fish that will only eat live, especially these stingrays. Maybe the first step is feeding it dead ghost shrimp. Begin throwing in a couple pieces of silverside or frozen krill with the live food. I've kept 2 of these and both of them went onto frozen within a month, so yes it is possible.