Going on vaction but what about my rays?

[tman]

Wish I had the drip system this time around!!

I am going on vacation and I have at least 2 possibly 3 stingrays pregnant. I have someone feeding my rays but I am only going to get them to feed them about 3 to 4 days out of the week as there will be no water changes until I get back. I am going to show them how to change filter socks but don't want to leave the burden of the water changes and feeding everyday. I will be doing water changes the day before I leave but I haven't left my ray tanks for more then 5 days between water changes. I figured the less feeding would extend my water change a little longer.

Do you think the pregnant females will be okay if not fed everyday?

Not sure on how the water quality will be as my tanks are heavily stocked but I am hoping they will be okay with the less feeding.

Tanks are 520 gallons with 180 gallon sump and 450 gallons with 145 gallon sump. I have 6 rays in each tank besides the other fish like pbass,aros and such.

 

[slednex11]

i think they will be ok trevor,are they ready to give birth soon? im sure if they ate every other day they would be fine(pretty darn positive) and help with the load on the water quality, My female wasnt aggressive with any tankmates (including C.Loaches that she could of easily ate) and she was only feed every other day while pregnant as thats my normal feeding schedule. whats all pregnant ? i know you said one of the Hen's

 

[Cirrus]

What about putting in a few liters of new/clean ammo chips or charcoal to your cannister filter a day or two before you leave? Just as a precaution against any kind of ammonia spike?

Are you planning to do a drip system in future? I would really recommend it. It makes keeping fish so much easier.

 

[hondas3000]

You are looking at a disaster if your ray have birth while you are away as water will get really dirty, and pup will get eaten too,big ray can go without food for a week or so but then water need to be good.

 

[tman]

i think they will be ok trevor,are they ready to give birth soon? im sure if they ate every other day they would be fine(pretty darn positive) and help with the load on the water quality, My female wasnt aggressive with any tankmates (including C.Loaches that she could of easily ate) and she was only feed every other day while pregnant as thats my normal feeding schedule. whats all pregnant ? i know you said one of the Hen's

No they are due in May and after. I was just worried about pup development if I lessened the feedings to the females while pregnant. All the Hens are pregnant.

 

[tman]

What about putting in a few liters of new/clean ammo chips or charcoal to your cannister filter a day or two before you leave? Just as a precaution against any kind of ammonia spike?

Are you planning to do a drip system in future? I would really recommend it. It makes keeping fish so much easier.

They both run on sumps so I guess I could put more bio media into the sump.

 

[tman]

You are looking at a disaster if your ray have birth while you are away as water will get really dirty, and pup will get eaten too,big ray can go without food for a week or so but then water need to be good.

They aren't due yet just pregnant. I am looking at probably May for the first due date.

 

[skynoch]

You could have some issues on feeding depending on how many pups each ray is carrying. Which of course you can't tell but it will influence how quick and how big there hunger gets. I've had rays which are pregnant that after missing one day of feedings has attacked and ate fish that have never even been looked at before. If it was me I would remove anything smaller and plan on less feedings even maybe introduce some cheaper fish that are slow that will be eaten first if the rays get too hungry. Your better off losing a couple fish to food than all due to foul water

 

[exoticaquaria]

I was away on holidays and got my parents to feed every 2 days. Just 1 water change in the month I was gone. The female gave birth to 2 healthy pups when I came back. One thing is she held them for 120 days. The minimal feeding could be a reason why the pups took a little longer to come out. Luckily the female wasn't too stressed afterwards. She was eating within 3 days. If you aren't gone for a long time I think it will be ok! Nothing to overly stress about thats for sure.

Its always hard to leave our beloved fish at home while on vacation huh? The 2nd time I was away was for 6 weeks and this time had BDs. Came back and they were ok. Thankfully lol.

 

[slednex11]

Scott has a point, but i also think it depends on the females feeding behaviour ultimately while being prego, they do usually feed more aggressive while prego tho, but im sure you know their behaviour by now... either normal or more aggressive, but i wouldnt worry much about pup development, as i stated before i fed every other day while my Female BDL was pregnant and she had 2 large healthy pups in exactly 96 days!!! and really its only 7 days outta 3 months, enjoy the Vacation

 

[skynoch]

Scott has a point, but i also think it depends on the females feeding behaviour ultimately while being prego, they do usually feed more aggressive while prego tho, but im sure you know their behaviour by now... either normal or more aggressive, but i wouldnt worry much about pup development, as i stated before i fed every other day while my Female BDL was pregnant and she had 2 large healthy pups in exactly 96 days!!! and really its only 7 days outta 3 months, enjoy the Vacation

There's alot of thoery on batman development and stillborn pups, some say water quality, genitics, temp, inbreeding but for me I believe lack of nutrution at the right stages is what causes it. But that being said for one week at that shcedule would not be an issue there.

 

[tman]

Well I am back from holidays and everything looks good so far thanks to my family!! The fish went a total of 9 days without water changes. Thanks to everyone for all the info. I used extra media in one tank and changed the socks out to 30" long on the sumps of the 2 big tanks other then that everything else stayed the same. The 2 big tanks were fed 3 times(2 frozen feedings and one pellet) in the 9 day period and my other tanks were fed everyday as they had small fish and lower stock levels. The filter socks were changed on day 5. Now just sick back and watch the fish for a couple days and then back to work.