Potamotrygon Laticeps

[Jonny967]

I have just bought some frozen shrimp and bloodworms in the small blister pack cubes, i have always used live bloodworm in my tanks so don't really know what to do with these frozen foods.
I suspect i defrost them and just drop them in? how many should i put in at one time as the angelfish tend to grab anything that sinks slowly?
Does anyone know whare to but live ghost shrimp cheaply on the internet as i would prefer to give the ray live food.

 

[CFC]

Defrost the bloodworm in a cup of aquarium water, then strain it through a net discarding the water and feed the worms to the fish, a good tip with rays is to soak other foods in the bloodworm water as well so the ray will eat them as well.
You will save money by buying 500 or 1kg blocks of bloodworm rather than blister packs, a small ray will eat half a pack a day when feeding properly.

I dont advise live foods unless they are needed to keep the animal alive, live food risks making the ray fussy and should a time come when you cannot get its food it may refuse to eat anything else and starve, a varied diet of prawns mussels and small fish is the preffered recomended diet.

 

[Jonny967]

Got a quote for a custom aquarium 60 x 30 x 30 for £207 with in built weir and inlet/outlets. Thought this was a fantastic price compared to others i have seen. They will also build the stand,surround and lid from any finish at a total price of 590 including tank. The name of the place is AC aquatics don't know if anyone has heard of them before they have an impressive gallery on the website.
Not looking to get the tank until end of may as the ray is ok in its current tank for now, i just need to find out about how to clean the sand in a aquarium? i know you can keep the rays with a plain bottom but surely they would be happier if the tank was more natural.

 

[CFC]

Cleaning the sand is easy with a bit of practice, all you do is use a piece of 22mm hose to syphon the water and hold it about half an inch above the sand so it picks up all the loose bits of dirt but leaves the heavier grains of sand behind, like i said it takes a bit of practice and the first few times youll pick up some sand as well but after a few goes it becomes second nature.

Good price on the tank and a nice size for the ray you have, all i would suggest now is getting a couple more to keep it company as they do like to be kept in groups when possible.

 

[cane76]

stick another foot on the length if you can it shouldnt change the quote that much
with the extra room you can have a trio of rays and possibly breed them
as a aternative to sand which can stick on rays and clog filtes,you can use fine grade dorset pea gravel

 

[cheesy feet]

I was going to say, a ray with a 16 inch disc is going to be much longer inluding tail.Definitely try to go for a 6fter.

 

[Jonny967]

Having problems with the stingray feeding, over the weekend i tried some prawns and frozen bloodworm but its just not bothered about them. On the other hand if i put a couple of bags of live bloodworm in it absolutly gobbles them all up.
I want to get it feeding on different foods so it won't grow up to be a fussy eater, do you think that some live ghost shrimp would be ok to feed it? of is it still too small to be trying any live food? its currently about 3.5" diameter.

P.S i have also ordered the tank i mentioned but a 6 footer cant wait to take delivery in around 6-8 weeks and get it all set up. As this is the biggest tank i have ever had does anyone know what setup it will require (filters etc)? I have had a weir put in with 40mm inlet/outlets.

 

[CFC]

At this small stage keep offering the foods it wont accept but if it hasnt eaten them within an hour remove them and feed it the food it will eat, young rays can lose weight fast so its not advisable to starve them until they have a bit of body fat on them. It will certainly eat live shrimp but using them might just create more problems for you as rays do seem to get addicted to them.

If the tank is drilled and fitted with a weir then you need a sump which is large enough to easily hold all the water above the weir and in the plumbing plus the filter media, usually this will be around 10% of the tanks total volume so in your case you want a sump of around 25 to 30 gallons, for more information about sumps and how they work etc ask in the hardware forum.

 

[andywg]

If you want to go wild and break with the tradition of amateur ray keepers (but copy public aquaria professional keepers) you could consider force feeding a home made gruel until the ray has enough weight to starve it into eating. Apparently force feeding has a higher success rate of getting rays to feed in public aquaria than the ways most of us would try.

Not an easy concetp for anyone to get around when one considers tht we usually try and minimise stress on new occupants, but the results do seem very promising.

 

[Jonny967]

Don't really like the idea of force feeding, if its hungry then it will eat and as long as i supply it with different foods then it will learn to feed on different things.
I have just bought some frozen lance fish, dropped a couple of little pieces into the tank and after initially figuring out what it was the ray then gobbled it all up.

 

[CFC]

If the fish is taking frozen fish then half the battle is won.

 

[cane76]

if its taking frozen fish and bloodworm dont offer it any live food from now on

 

[Jonny967]

I've got a better picture of the ray for you all to identify the species, just changed the gravel to silica sand there is a really good set of instructions for doing this on one of the other forums, it was stilla complete pain in the backside though but looks fantastic.

 

[mark7616]

Retic

 

[Jonny967]

I got another retic ray over the weekend this one is female so in a few years they may even breed!, agian it was sold as a laticeps but this one is easily identified bt the length of its tail, the disk size of the two is approx the same but the females tail is around 1.5" longer and goes to a very fine point on the end? is it possible that my male ray has had its tail trimmed?
it certainly looks that way but i would have thought it would be animal cruelty?
One good thing though is that the new female is feeding on mashed up prawns and lance fish straight away