Stingrays eye!

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Bubbles the clown knife!

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2018
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This morning I looked in my tank to find my stingrays eye looks like it was poked in. And she is in so much pain she's almost curled up. Her other eye is fine, just the one. Won't eat and I don't know what happened. I have 2 young dwarf stingrays (she is one of them) , 2 peacock bass the are 3in long and a clown knife that is 8in long in the tank. The tank is 180gallon. They all have their own space and have established there spots.
Water temp:82 Water ph 7 , nitrite 0 ,nitrate 0
Carbonate hardness 80mg, general hardness 120mg.
How do I save her?

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Not good..looks like death curl. What is your ammonia....I'd guess you had an ammonia spike, the usual culprit in a case of curl. Your nitrate being 0 tells me your biological filtration is not established. What test kit do you use? API is the one you should be using, and if you are, be sure to follow the instructions carefully for the nitrate test. If you don't shake test bottle 2 vigorously for 30 seconds, and the test tube for 1 minute, you'll get a false zero reading. Stingrays are extremely sensitive to ammonia, and produce copious amounts of it compared with other fish. Well established biological filtration is a must...and a large sump with k1 fluidized media is the best way to accomplish this. Check that ammonia, and we'll go from there.
 
ammomia level is at 2.0. Is there anyway i can use Seachem Prime conditioner to reduce the ammonia levels? Is there any chance of saving my stingray with how badly curled she is??
 
Do a really big (50%+) water change. Seachem prime will lock up the ammonia into a safe compound for about 24 hrs. You will need to act fast to save your other ray. I regret to tell you that stingrays do not recover from curl. The neurological damage that causes this symptom is irreversible. I'm terribly sorry
 
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Should I put Seachem Prime the tank as Im refilling it or before? Would Seachem Stability help any??
As you refill is best. Stability won't hurt any, but prime will do fine on It's own. You will need to do a big water change every day until the bio recovers...may take a couple weeks. Keep testing your ammonia daily to monitor progress.
 
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Wasn't able to save the stringray that curled. But with a 75% water change. New ammonia eliminated bag in my filter. And some Seachem Prime in my tank, my other stingrays has no signs of curling that I can see.

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Sorry for your loss. If you're diligent you might save the other. I will warn you ahead of time...in order to keep a ray long term, you'll need to upgrade your filtration and get a much larger tank. I wouldn't keep an adult ray in anything less than a 300 gallon, and sump filtration with K1 fluidized media. Rays are difficult and expensive to keep, and even the smallest species get quite large. Read up as much as you can in the stingray sub-forum here on MFK. There are plenty of Ray keepers such as myself that will be glad to help you along the way. Rays are an incredible pet to keep, and very rewarding. Best of luck!
 
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