Overfeeding Stingrays?? Lead to problems down the road??

[T1KARMANN]

just out of intrest how would you tell if a ray is to fat

all i know is if my rays are full they dont eat anymore their chould be loads of their fav foods in the tank if they dont want anymore they wont eat it just like in the wild if a ray is swimming around over worms or what ever if the ray doesnt want the food it wont eat it

the main food in my tank for the rays is pellets which i think is balaced diet i dont think its a great idear to feed them solely on prawn/shrimp sea fish mussel cockle as they are high in salt

salts is no good for us so i feel it cant be that good for rays

 

[chris_wb]

Hi,

i dont think its a great idear to feed them solely on prawn/shrimp sea fish mussel cockle as they are high in salt

Thats not right. The content of salt in saltwaterfish is not significantly higher than in freshwater-fish!

I can give you a link to an article in our Knowledge Base, but it's in german again. It would be quite hard for me, to translate it.

http://board.rochenwelt.eu/kb.php?mode=article&k=1

I guess it's more important to feed gnat-grubs (I don't know if the translation is correct!) and small things like they do eat in their natural habitat, for example shrimp.
A stingray should have no real -as we call it- backpack after feeding. That's the first sign that it was to much.

 

[nickdog98]

Thanks everyone for all of your input. This is exactly what I wanted out of this thread, meaningful discussion back and forth with view points from all sides.

As for the "backpack" after feeding, I feel there has been a lot of emphasis put on bulking up rays to the point they have a "J-Lo booty" or huge ass after eating.

The only thing I know without a doubt, and Im sure most raykeepers will agree, is that I want my rays to live as long as possible in captivity..hopefully 20+years, and be as healthy as possible.

Lots of interesting points here from all you guys..

 

[amazongirl]

I think since many rays come into the hobby pretty emaciated, and many more rays die as a result of being undernourished, so that is what we tend to worry about. Let's face it though, most rays don't get a lot of space to move around or get exercise so it isn't like they are getting a chance to burn the kind of calories they would in a wild. In my experience, rays will rarely eat themselves to a point where they appear to be obese, unlike many other fish. Does this mean that no rays will over-eat- of course not. A fish (or any other animal) that is already overweight and has a fatty liver is going to have problems when it stops eating. I think the point about making it more challenging (physically and mentally) is a very good one. Ocassionally giving a food (like live ghost shrimp) that the rays have to hunt down probably doesn't provide a lot of nutrition, but does provide some variety and mental stimulation and probably a bit more exercise that having food dropped on it's head! We have sometimes placed food in a large piece of PVC with holes drilled in the side and capped on each end. The ray has to move the pipe around to get the food out. Mental challenge, exercise, enrichment- probably a good thing.

 

[T1KARMANN]

i have never fed with a big massive lump on the rear

as stated before rays seam to digest their food very fast which is why they are looking for food soon after feeding

most people say its best to feed the ray lots of food when they are skinny with bones showing to get them back in good condition after being imported or are not fed enought buy a past owner

their is a thin line between feeding to much and not enought

i personally dont think its possable to over feed a ray i just feed the tank like normal if the rays are real hungry they jump on food fast if they are not that hungry they leave the food for other fish to eat

i would love to see a fat ray as if they are not getting enought food they start eatting into their fat resurves fast

 

[tank125]

...We have sometimes placed food in a large piece of PVC with holes drilled in the side and capped on each end. The ray has to move the pipe around to get the food out. ...

That enrichment tool would work very well with live earthworms. What do you use it with? It must be noted though that one should remove it after an hour or so in the event that food is stuck in there and rotting.

 

[Brent]

how long the road are we talking
i have been stuffing my rays everyother day for 5 years and they are still fine and healthy i wonder how long

 

[csx4236]

how long the road are we talking
i have been stuffing my rays everyother day for 5 years and they are still fine and healthy i wonder how long

Everyother day is better then everyday.

 

[T1KARMANN]

i feed my rays everyday

if i dont feed them eveyday they start trying to eat tankmates so i would take it they are are hungry

i wont stop feeding my ray everyday anytime soon

 

[rayman]

I think since many rays come into the hobby pretty emaciated, and many more rays die as a result of being undernourished, so that is what we tend to worry about.

Yes, these are the first problems with wild cought rays. And everyone is glad when the ray is feeding. But after they gained enough weight some people continue to feed them much food. It is one thing to get a starved ray to normal weight (much food) and another to give him only the amount of food he need to hold his weight.
Some male rays have bellies like females in the last week of pregnancy and this is not ok in my opinion. Some time ago I visited at a raybreeder and looked closely at a very fat ray if there was some movement in the body, then I've seen clasper at this ray and realised that it was a overfeed male and not a pregnant female ...

In my experience, rays will rarely eat themselves to a point where they appear to be obese, unlike many other fish.

I did an experiment with my first motoro how much he can feed and after a big meal he burried himself in the sand for many hours. I never fed a ray so much food again.

Ocassionally giving a food (like live ghost shrimp) that the rays have to hunt down probably doesn't provide a lot of nutrition, but does provide some variety and mental stimulation and probably a bit more exercise that having food dropped on it's head! We have sometimes placed food in a large piece of PVC with holes drilled in the side and capped on each end. The ray has to move the pipe around to get the food out. Mental challenge, exercise, enrichment- probably a good thing.

Some very good points!
I feed even my large rays some bloodworms everyday. So they have to move around and search the whole tank for these small food items.