Stingray not feeding, FW    11/16/07
hi i have a young freshwater stingray it has not fed since i got it. i have had it for about 4 weeks. i have poot it in a new tank on its own.
<Sorry, what's the question? There are many reasons why Stingrays won't feed, and almost all of them come down to improper care. So the problem is much more likely with you and not the fish, and unless you fix that problem, it'll die. Stingrays are exceedingly difficult fish that should only ever be kept by aquarists with many years experience. They need big tanks in particular with a wide surface area, at least 75 cm by 200 cm, and filtration needs to be top-notch, of the order of 10 times the volume of the tank per hour. Water changes need to be not less than 50% per week, and really two or three times that. Water chemistry isn't critical, but water chemistry stability is, so that needs to be factored in, and chemical buffering used if appropriate. There are no "small" species, and the appealing little juveniles widely sold are even more delicate than their parents. I'd suggest that around nine out of every ten stingrays sold dies within the first six months. Almost no-one who tries keeping them succeeds, UNLESS they have lots of experience and done plenty of reading. And even then, it all comes down to having a big tank with perfect water quality. When healthy, stingrays will eat pretty much anything: river shrimp, earthworms, chunky seafood, silversides, etc. Cheers, Neale.>

Re: stingray not feeding – 11/17/07
thank you for your time, ill let you know if I get it feeding
<You're welcome. Good luck! Neale>

FW Ray fdg.  - 7/23/07
Hi Robert I am not sure if you are the guy to ask this question but her i goes.
I have a Motoro ray he is about 6" was doing real well. My water quality is perfect
<?>
and so is the temperature.
<Is this a guessing game? How about some clues if so?>
His tank mates are a Pleco and a couple surviving tetras (food) I made the mistake of just feeding him earth worms fro a couple months ( I know bad) Gave him kidney or liver failure. He lost tons of wait and is real skinny. I am trying to bring him back to his heath again.
I have been feeding him bud worms for the last few days he seems to be eating them but there not too filling I don't think. He does not want to eat any frozen krill or shrimp. I am even trying to feed him a small live 3/4" crayfish. But he does not seem too keen on it or the ghost shrimp.
Do you have any suggestions for me that might get him eating again.
<Mmm... need to know the values you hint at above... likely lowering the pH, raising the temperature, offering live food... maybe like ghost shrimp... Possibly soaking in a vitamin/HUFA supplement...>
Yes I learned my lesson f/w rays need variety for food.
Thanks in advance Kevin B
Me Kevin B.
<Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwrayfdgfaqs.htm
and the linked files above. Bob Fenner>

Stingray issue  7/22/07
Hi there,
My question is about my fw stingray. I currently am housing 3 fw stingrays, 2 Motoros and one reticulata (teacup). Motoros are 12 in and 6 in and teacup is 6 inches . I have had them for about a year in a 265 gal with a large Pacu and 14 in silver arowana. As of late the smaller Motoro has been swimming above where the air bubble wand and filter outtake meet. Its def out of character for her. I am using a fluval fx5, an emperor BioWheel and Eheim canister for filtration. One of her eyes seems cloudy and closing. I lost the first ray I had a year ago and he showed some similar signs. Ammonia 0 nitrate 0 ph 6.0.
Temp about 82. I feed rays jumbo night crawlers I get from bait shop and once in a while feeder goldfish but not to much. I added Pimafix. She also has a little red around her mouth. The swimming funny really has me thinking somethings up. She eats and has not lost any weight. Any helpful hints. I would really appreciate any help your site is the best. Oh and substrate is sand very easy on them.
<Greetings. As you probably realize, freshwater stingrays are exceptionally difficult fish that are only suitable for very advanced, highly experienced fishkeepers. When it comes to disease, the problems are that [a] we don't really have a textbook list of stingray diseases yet and [b] many of the medications safe with bony fish are dangerous to cartilaginous fish. Now, as a general rule, when fish swim into the filter current it is usually because this is where the water quality is highest and the oxygen concentration highest. Likewise, when fish show red patches on this skin (signs of irritation) then again, water quality is something to think about. In your case, you need to be reviewing a variety of things. Ammonia and nitrite obviously (you say the former is 0, but how regularly do you test it? try testing over a week and at different times of the day, especially shortly after feeding). Nitrate needs to be as close to zero as possible, which you say is the case. But water chemistry is also important. Stingrays aren't that fussed about pH and hardness, but they are bothered by changes. So if you're manipulating your water supply to get the low pH and hardness levels you have, check to see you're being consistent. Another issue is air or water pollution: it's easy for things like paint vapours and tobacco smoke to end up in the aquarium, and these will irritate/poison the fish. Yet another issue is filter turnover. For a stingray, I'd recommend not less than 8x the volume of the tank in turnover per hour (i.e., marine quality filtration and twice that for regular small community fish like guppies and tetras). Given your aquarium is 265 gallons, that means you need filtration around 2120 gallons per hour, minimum. Your Fluval delivers about 600 gallons per hour, the Emperor 280 gallons per hour, and the Eheim I don't know how much because you don't say the model. But it needs to be *at least* 1240 gallons per hour to even make the baseline your stingrays need. Since even a really big Eheim like the Professional 3 is only producing a "mere" 450 US gallons per hour turnover, your tank is very likely (almost certainly) under-filtered. Some more general advice. Melafix and Pimafix are largely useless as treatments. While they sometimes work for some people under some conditions, they're too inconsistent to be relied on, and therefore of no value with expensive fishes like yours. Another problem is diet. Stingrays feed on a variety of animals in the wild including small fish, but never Cyprinidae. The nearest Cyprinidae are hundreds if not thousands of miles away from where they live. Why do I mention that? Because Cyprinidae -- things like goldfish and minnows -- have high quantities of Thiaminase that breaks down Vitamin B1 over time. They also contain a lot of fat. Fish that eat them in the wild, like pike, presumably are adapted to this, but most other predatory fish do not seem to be, and long term both these issues cause damage. Bob Fenner has written at length on the issue of feeder goldfish and marine predators like Lionfish. Since your stingray is, basically, a marine fish that happens to be living in freshwater because it got trapped on the wrong side of a newborn mountain range, your stingray likely will react the same way to a high fat, high thiaminase diet as any other marine predator (i.e., poorly). On top of this, feeder fish are the Number 1 best way to introduce parasites and bacteria into your nice clean stingray aquarium. To be honest, whoever advised you to feed cheap "parasite time bombs", sorry, feeder goldfish, to something as delicate and easy to kill as a stingray deserves to spend some quality time on the Naughty Spot. The ideal foods for stingrays are either terrestrial foods (like earthworms), marine foods (like mussels and prawns), or "clean" frozen foods (like bloodworms and lancefish). All these will be safe because they have no chance of introducing parasites or bacteria into the aquarium likely to harm a freshwater stingray. Over here in the UK, live estuarine river shrimp are widely used with success and these match very closely the preferred staple diet of freshwater stingrays in the wild: large crustaceans. As you realize, stingrays have teeth adapted not for catch fish but for crushing shells. Finally, the whole sand issue in aquaria for stingrays is debated endlessly. There's some good evidence that dirty sand can trap bacteria and cause infections. This has been observed on catfish barbels for years (erroneously put down by some people to "sharp" gravel wearing the barbels down). Catfish generally shrug off such infections and re-grow their barbels when conditions improve, catfish being, fundamentally, very hardy animals usually adapted to swamps and other horrid environments. Stingrays do not have this level of robustness. So double check the sand is spotlessly clean. You should be stirring it weekly and siphoning out any detritus. Many stingray keepers prefer to keep their rays in tanks without sand to side-step this issue. Finally, do check the fish aren't able to burn themselves. It is *extremely* common for stingrays to burn themselves against the heater. The heater should be either inside the filter or covered with a plastic mesh of some kind (called "guards" and these often come with the better heaters anyway). Hope this helps! Cheers, Neale.>

Motoro sting ray... RMF rant on the new trade, poor env., poisoning, lack of useful info.  - 02/15/07
Hello,
I have a motoro stingray with a sand substrate.
<Hopefully not silicate... but smooth...>
I was using new Tetra tec filters with internal heaters to protect the ray but the impellers kept failing.
<What is happening with the "new" Tetra? And while we're at it... Aquarium Systems salts? Oceanic Tanks...?  What gives with the "consolidation" of the pet-trade anyhow? The big owners are doing a crap job of "managing"...>
  I switched to Filstar Canistar filters
<Am not a fan of...>
and had a mild algae bloom.  I treated the tank with a small amount of "algae fix"
<NO!!! Toxic...>
which corrected the algae issue but now she refuses to eat.
<Poisoned...>
  It has only been three days and I have tried bloodworms, ghost shrimp, and krill all of which she used to love.  All levels are fine
<... worthless>
and she seems fine but I would like to know if there is anything I can do to get her back to eating regularly?
<...>
I do not think that the filter change is the problem because I changed the filter on another ray tank at the same time and that teacup ray is eating normally. I did a water change but she still refuses to eat.
Bob Fenner had some great advise which helped in setting up for both my ray tanks and I hope that he or anyone else can help with this question.
Please advise,
Thanks,
Joe
<Please take the (re)read here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwstingrays.htm
and the linked files above. I would do a series of water changes to remove the algicide, make sure the water is warm, soft, acidic per this species requirements... and be patient at this point. BobF>