ray stopped eating!

[JLake]

One of my retic pups has stopped eating! I think she has had only one section of worm in the last 24 hours when she usually eats 10 sections of worms. She is usually so busy in the tank, she is always topping the male. But now she is just hiding in the corner behind a sponge filter. She doesn't move too often. I tested the water and it came up good with 0 amm 0 nitrite and between 10 20 ppm of nitrate! What can I do to save her? Is it the worm only diet hurting her? She won't eat anything else. Temp is 81F. I recently added a wc pleco to the tank just to clean some algae for me. Could this be the problem? What's the ideal amount of nitrate ppm in a ray tank? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Pms would be best. Thank you.

[skynoch]

One of my retic pups has stopped eating! I think she has had only one section of worm in the last 24 hours when she usually eats 10 sections of worms. She is usually so busy in the tank, she is always topping the male. But now she is just hiding in the corner behind a sponge filter. She doesn't move too often. I tested the water and it came up good with 0 amm 0 nitrite and between 10 20 ppm of nitrate! What can I do to save her? Is it the worm only diet hurting her? She won't eat anything else. Temp is 81F. I recently added a wc pleco to the tank just to clean some algae for me. Could this be the problem? What's the ideal amount of nitrate ppm in a ray tank? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Pms would be best. Thank you.

Your diet won't be hurting her unless your getting your worms from a lawn that has been fertilized. Most likely the problem is coming from the pleco causing damage or stressing out the ray. Have you noticed any marks on your rays disc? What type of pleco is it? Your water quality looks good but out of curiousity when was the last time you changed the water in your tank and what is yur waterchange schedule like? Do you have substrate in your tank and if so how deep? Any other tankmates?

[JLake]

Its a LDA062 I think. Orange spotted pleco. There is not enough sand in the tank for it to even cover itself. I suction out the poops nightly. And do like 40 to 50 percent weekly and what amounts to be 5 gallons daily. No other tankmates and no marks on the ray. The pleco seems to be quite intimadated by the rays. I gave the pleco a lil tube and that's where it stays if the rays are moving. How long can they go without eating? She still has a nice hump which is strange bc she hasn't been eating.

[JLake]

Its a LDA062 I think. Orange spotted pleco. There is not enough sand in the tank for it to even cover itself. I suction out the poops nightly. And do like 40 to 50 percent weekly and what amounts to be 5 gallons daily. No other tankmates and no marks on the ray. The pleco seems to be quite intimadated by the rays. I gave the pleco a lil tube and that's where it stays if the rays are moving. How long can they go without eating? She still has a nice hump which is strange bc she hasn't been eating.

[skynoch]

With plecos the damage usually comes at night,the pleco still may be the problem, if there might be a chance it is add a little shrimp at night and it will usually take that over a rays skin. I'm not personally familiar with rectics so I can't say how long they can go without eatng or not knowing the size of your ray. Most 6" healthy rays could go 2-3 weeks without eating. Everyhing seems to be in order so when in doubt with rays and unsure what could be a problem start with doing 3 days straight of 30% waterchanges conditioning the water out of the tank first and see if things get better. Keep us posted if you notice anything that doesn't seem right with the rays behavoir eg rapid or deep breathing, scratcing, coughing, stayin near the surface, ect..

There is definitly something stressing your ray but not sure what it is yet. If you are getting alot of algae then I'm wondering if your lights are too bright, your tank is exposed to direct sunlight or your nitrates may have been high recently. Besides the waterchanges also try keeping your lights off and covering 3/4 of the tank with a towel or something

[JLake]

Thanks for your help. There isn't much algae just some stuff that is hard to scrape off! I think she ate some worm last night. Maybe ill move the pleco.the breathing seems a lil rapid but the same as the other. My gf got up with the baby at 4am and said they were both up and splashing around at night. So that makes me feel better. I have been doing large wcs since I noticed she sropped eating. I'm just trying to get the hang of this ray habit. I wish I knew that retics weren't as hardy as say motoros! Oh well I love my rays and hope they aren't going anywhere!