A little scare last night

[skynoch]

So I started doing my routine feeding last night starting first with the dry food in all the tanks and then the frozen and live foods. As I was walking back into the room with my large tank I noticed the water was a little cloudy, I instantly knew it was my castexi starting to give birth. My girlfriend went to get the camera for a vid and I began getting ready to climb in the tank to get the pups out. The last time I had a ray give birth during a feeding the pups were mistaken for the food and I lost almost all of them so I wanted to get in there as soon as I could. I waited till it seemed she was done but it was hard to tell as the water got extremely dirty by this time. Needing to get in as soon as possible I climbed in and started looking for the pups, it was about this time she started round two and started thrashing and bolting around causing the other rays to freak out also, it was total chaos in the tank. I stood there as still as possible feeling rays bounce of my legs and their tails snapping into the sides of them, I just kept hoping that I wouldn't get stung in the process and by total shear luck I didn't. The only damage was a bruise from the 3' ripsaw nailing them. When the thrashing stopped I continued my pup search and came across a full batman pup pretty banged up, I kept looking and found some more batman,some normal and one one very decayed pup. This was probably the reason for the very dirty birth. After I put all the pups in the pup pen I noticed how the normal pups had a nice healthy booty while the more the batman look in the other pups was apperant so was the smaller back end. This is leading me to believe the batman appearance is a result of the pups not recieving enough nutrition in the womb (or whatever you call it,lol). Maybe if the female is lacking food during her pregnancy her body will start to cut off the amount of food to some of the pups to make sure some survive. Just a theory, any other ideas to why some rays have the batman appearance and others don't.

 

[letsgofishn]

Holly cow Batman, you are one brave man to stand in you tank like that, good thing your alright! So are there any videos? Thanks for sharing your story Scott, good luck.

 

[rudy]

Pretty cool story Scott. Glad your still here!

 

[RTG_Gerry]

Pretty cool story Scott. Glad your still here!

No kidding!


Fascinating experience to read about. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Cirrus]

Absolutley epic, you must have tiger's blood.

 

[chen88]

Absolutley epic, you must have tiger's blood.

LOL....brave guy too!...hope the wife had the car running!

 

[skynoch]

if it was too much interbreeding like many people previously though,wouldnt all the pups be batmans in litters.

your theory is probably spot on man

These were both wildcaught rays so there was no interbreeding. Just a theory I'm putting out to see if anybody else has any ideas to the cause.

but sounds like alot fun inside the tank haha

It usually is a blast crawling in and petting the rays....thi time not so much.lol

Holly cow Batman, you are one brave man to stand in you tank like that, good thing your alright! So are there any videos? Thanks for sharing your story Scott, good luck.

I'm thinking one dumb as* is more like it. There is a video but I haven't seen it yet to know if yo can make anything out with the water being so murky. Which might be a good thing cause no one needs to see m in my 80's swimsuit.

Pretty cool story Scott. Glad your still here!

Wasn't quite sure if I would still be in the tank wincing in pain or not either.

No kidding!


Fascinating experience to read about. Thanks for sharing.

Allways glad to share my not so brilliant moments.

Absolutley epic, you must have tiger's blood.

lol, for sure not tigers blood just a bad thought process.

LOL....brave guy too!...hope the wife had the car running!

Well on better, she had the video camera running.

 

[carcrazy]

Wow, that's great! That must be one heck of a tank to be able to walk around in it. I suppose if I used a stepladder I can get in but it would hard to find the pups. I usually scoop mine out with an ice cream pail and transfer them to a smaller/safer tank. They always gave birth at night and I wouldn't find them until the morning (just before work).

I'd love to see the video! And congratulations.

 

[Gumby79]

Thats lucky you made out without getting stung I know I wouldn'd be so lucky if I was in your possition lol

 

[skynoch]

Wow, that's great! That must be one heck of a tank to be able to walk around in it. I suppose if I used a stepladder I can get in but it would hard to find the pups. I usually scoop mine out with an ice cream pail and transfer them to a smaller/safer tank. They always gave birth at night and I wouldn't find them until the morning (just before work).

I'd love to see the video! And congratulations.

Thanks I'm not sure they will make it thou. Mine usually give birth at night but I got lucky and had this birth earlier. I'll try and put a video together this weekend editing out any buluga whale spottings.

Thats lucky you made out without getting stung I know I wouldn'd be so lucky if I was in your possition lol

lol all I kept thinking was your story about when you got stung.

 

[bcarlos]

Man, you're a soldier!

It sounds like your rays get a pretty good diet, Scott. Perhaps the birth defects has something to do with the other tank mates? I'd imagine it gets pretty rough in there, maybe she experienced some trauma during the pregnancy that caused the defect. No way to prove it really, as I'm sure you've had previous healthy litters from other rays in the same tank, with the same tankmates.

Let's see some pics!

 

[carcrazy]

I didn't get any batman rays until the second generation bred (brother and sister). For my motoros (when I had them) it seemed to have been more a case of inbreeding. They bred in a calm tank, no noticed aggression.

 

[skynoch]

Man, you're a soldier!

It sounds like your rays get a pretty good diet, Scott. Perhaps the birth defects has something to do with the other tank mates? I'd imagine it gets pretty rough in there, maybe she experienced some trauma during the pregnancy that caused the defect. No way to prove it really, as I'm sure you've had previous healthy litters from other rays in the same tank, with the same tankmates.

Let's see some pics!

My rays are usually very well fed but I was very busy at the time and didn't know she was prego at first so there was not enough food in the tank for her and then during the pregnancy I got busy at work again and missed some feedings so I know that my miscare may have been a cause in this case. Usually the tank is pretty calm except during a birth, even breeding rays isn't that big of a deal in this tank. She is also the master of the tank so nothing really ever stresses her. This is her 3rd litter, the first was a successful 11 pup birth the second had a few batman pups out of the eleven but I know I missed feedings during this pregnancy also and the last one here was only one fully developed birth out of seven, all other rays but one that have given birth from me have never lost a pup due to any birth complications or have had any batman pups. The other weird birth was just a premature birth and there was some stress in the tank at the time.
Really no way of proving things just seeing if anything makes sense or if any other people who have had batman pups have had any similar experiences

I didn't get any batman rays until the second generation bred (brother and sister). For my motoros (when I had them) it seemed to have been more a case of inbreeding. They bred in a calm tank, no noticed aggression.

When your pups came out where they all batman or were some normal? Did they all come out the same weight or did some look skinnier than others?
I know one theory was inbreeding but with my castexi's both being wildcaught and two different species that will rule this out in my case.