I have been doing some research on the round stingrays before i purchased one, however i purchased him on tuesday annd he still hasnt eaten. ive read some things on how they are prone to not eating but i was wondering if anyone had a real good food that i havent heard about or just some more tips. I currently have a 280 gallon tank set up with just him in it. Ive tried feeding him raw shrimp and raw scallops with no luck. Ive tried burrying it and also tried to feed it to him on a pole, he is scared of the pole and just swims away. Im not sure if he just needs time or if i should try some other things. your answers would be greatly appreciated thanks Anthony.
Round stingray
- Thread starter draza88
- Start date
Allmost
New member
Hello,
Stingrays tell you everything you need to knwo about your water. a happy stingray will NEVER refuse food, even if you hold it in ure palm, he would try to get it
if he is happy and healthy.
Id have to say its 99% your water, they are sensitive to any traces of no3 .... how are you filtering his tank ?
ID start doing some BIG water changes, maybe 50%+ to get him to eat.
I used to breed freshwater and saltwater stingrays (blue dots and motoros) and you need GOOD water, ALOT of food. and some entertainment for the ray to be happy they have a GREAT personality and will be friends wiht you in no time, if you are friends with him lol (AKA doing water changes for him)
Edit, forgot to add, try bait worms, earth worms, california black worms .... any worms basically, stingrays LOVE that stuff cut it in half if the ray is too small and just drop in water, it wiggling will get the rays attention and ....
Stingrays tell you everything you need to knwo about your water. a happy stingray will NEVER refuse food, even if you hold it in ure palm, he would try to get it
if he is happy and healthy.Id have to say its 99% your water, they are sensitive to any traces of no3 .... how are you filtering his tank ?
ID start doing some BIG water changes, maybe 50%+ to get him to eat.
I used to breed freshwater and saltwater stingrays (blue dots and motoros) and you need GOOD water, ALOT of food. and some entertainment for the ray to be happy
they have a GREAT personality and will be friends wiht you in no time, if you are friends with him lol (AKA doing water changes for him)Edit, forgot to add, try bait worms, earth worms, california black worms .... any worms basically, stingrays LOVE that stuff
cut it in half if the ray is too small and just drop in water, it wiggling will get the rays attention and ....
Allmost
New member
yes there is nothing wrong with earth worms, california worms (the darker and thinner ones) are much better (more nutrition)
ghost shrimp, cleaner shrimp (although expensive) would work too, best to gut load them first.
even smaller fish would too ... but again, take a healthy stingray
Stingrays, once again, are PIGS ! a stingray will not refuse food of ANY type
so when I say check water, take that seriously for the rays health, they are sensitive fish, and any trace of no3 will irritate them and could be lethal. I have spent too much time with them to know hunger strike and rays are known facts. unless you have a VERY powerfull skimmer in there, you will need to do 50% water changes weekly.good luck
enjoy ure Ray, they have alot of personalityI have a Cortez Stingray which is just a smaller version of the Round Stingray. If you have never kept a ray before I would strongly recommend getting " Sharks & Rays" by Scott Michael. It is very informative and IMO, a must have for keeping Elasmobranches. It's not good but not that uncommon for a ray to not eat for a bit in new suroundings. When I got mine, I watched him eat at the LFS and he also ate as soon as I got him home. It was eating a bigger size Mysis Shrimp. At home, he kept eating Mysis and then I tried frozen Silversides, shrimp, and squid. Now I cannot get him to eat anything but the Silversides. Since my ray is only about 4 inches wide at the disk and 7 inches long, I feed it a 1/2 of a normal sized silverside daily. I cut it up into 4 small pieces and can either hand feed or on a stick. Although, it took some time to get him use to it. I have also lightly buried it the food in the sand and he liked that too. I have a feeling though it wont be much longer and the hand feeding will be no longer. Anyway, since he is swimming around and has lots of energy, I think he will eat soon. Like Allmost said, keep good quality water in his home and he or she should start to eat. You will enjoy the ray as they do have great personalities and fun to watch.
Jim
Jim
yeah i have bought scallops, raw shrimp, krill, and brine shrimp so far no luck,but today i partially buried some raw shrimp and he did sit over top of it and definately was trying to eat it or did eat a little but the piece was still there when he left it but was mangled so hopefully he is eating a little. I might try some silversides i saw them at the store but wasnt sure about them.
saltyguy51
New member
I have 6 California Round Rays and they will eat anything and everything---IN TIME. I have a Blue Spot and a Yellow Spot that needed to be tube fed for 4-6 weeks before they would eat on their own but that should'nt be the case with the Rounds. Keep the light low and little activity as possible. There's one thing that I have found that most any fish will eat if all else fails and that is PE Mysis freshwater shrimp. Its only been a few days so you still have some time. How does he/she look by the base of the tail? Skinny with a bone like protrusion on each side? A picture of that could help. Btw they are very hardy Rays and good water quality is good but I'm sure thats not the problem. These guys live next to factory discharge pipes where the water is less that satisfactory and still reproduce, maybe the person out in Caifornia that see's these and keeps them also will chime in. I wish you good fortune and keep us updated.
saltyguy51
New member
Hello,
Stingrays tell you everything you need to knwo about your water. a happy stingray will NEVER refuse food, even if you hold it in ure palm, he would try to get it
Id have to say its 99% your water, they are sensitive to any traces of no3 .... how are you filtering his tank ?
ID start doing some BIG water changes, maybe 50%+ to get him to eat.
I used to breed freshwater and saltwater stingrays (blue dots and motoros) and you need GOOD water, ALOT of food. and some entertainment for the ray to be happy
Edit, forgot to add, try bait worms, earth worms, california black worms .... any worms basically, stingrays LOVE that stuff
I would like to see some documentation of you breeding Blue Dots... thats a tall order to breed them and I never heard of anyone personally breeding them but I do know Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has success in doing so.
nuccadoc
Member
Hello,
Stingrays tell you everything you need to knwo about your water. a happy stingray will NEVER refuse food, even if you hold it in ure palm, he would try to get it
Id have to say its 99% your water, they are sensitive to any traces of no3 .... how are you filtering his tank ?
ID start doing some BIG water changes, maybe 50%+ to get him to eat.
I used to breed freshwater and saltwater stingrays (blue dots and motoros) and you need GOOD water, ALOT of food. and some entertainment for the ray to be happy
Edit, forgot to add, try bait worms, earth worms, california black worms .... any worms basically, stingrays LOVE that stuff
Allmost, does this apply to sharks also? I am currently raising a bamboo shark and the 400 gal he is going in later has nitrates in the 50 range. I am going to be purchasing a Koralin sulphur denitrator to lower the nitrates.
Scott
saltyguy51
New member
Actually Elasmobranches really dont like big water changes and a denitrater would always be a good idea. If you were to ask most people with big shark and ray systems they would not worry to much with that reading of 50 ppm but would always be best to keep it lower of course.
Yeah, I'm calling shenanigwhatthef's on this. My ultimate goal would be to breed blue spots, and I don't think it will happen. I've got one male and 2 females all healthy (for now) and I would be super happy if I saw breeding activity. But if you do have documentation, please share.
Yeah, I'm calling shenanigwhatthef's on this. My ultimate goal would be to breed blue spots, and I don't think it will happen. I've got one male and 2 females all healthy (for now) and I would be super happy if I saw breeding activity. But if you do have documentation, please share. Sorry if this double posts, but the servers were "wicked busy" the first time.
