Marine Ray Parasitic Treatments

[ethankoch888]

Hi guys, I'm new to reef2reef so if I'm missing something I apologize. I work in a small private display aquarium and the owner of the aquarium out of blue without consulting the aquarists bought 2x blue spotted rays (Neotrygon kuhlii) and threw them into the display on our day off. Two weeks later it is very clear at least one of them was not healthy. We removed them from the display and placed them into a quarantine pond (600g). The smaller of the two rays would eat but would lose weight faster than she could put it on. She's extremely lethargic and overall, just a poor sight. The larger female is very active, eats like a champ but obviously coming from the same tank and supplier we wanted to take all precautions necessary. As far as medicating does anyone have any experience with treating marine rays? My bet would be an internal parasite as there are no external symptoms or injuries. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of information on treating marine rays and our normal fish Qt uses copper and some other meds not safe for elasmobranchs. Thank you for any help you guys can provide!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi guys, I'm new to reef2reef so if I'm missing something I apologize. I work in a small private display aquarium and the owner of the aquarium out of blue without consulting the aquarists bought 2x blue spotted rays (Neotrygon kuhlii) and threw them into the display on our day off. Two weeks later it is very clear at least one of them was not healthy. We removed them from the display and placed them into a quarantine pond (600g). The smaller of the two rays would eat but would lose weight faster than she could put it on. She's extremely lethargic and overall, just a poor sight. The larger female is very active, eats like a champ but obviously coming from the same tank and supplier we wanted to take all precautions necessary. As far as medicating does anyone have any experience with treating marine rays? My bet would be an internal parasite as there are no external symptoms or injuries. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of information on treating marine rays and our normal fish Qt uses copper and some other meds not safe for elasmobranchs. Thank you for any help you guys can provide!

Safe is General cure but being a public aquarium, I will direct you to @Jay Hemdal who too works at a public aquarium and manages such specimens

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi guys, I'm new to reef2reef so if I'm missing something I apologize. I work in a small private display aquarium and the owner of the aquarium out of blue without consulting the aquarists bought 2x blue spotted rays (Neotrygon kuhlii) and threw them into the display on our day off. Two weeks later it is very clear at least one of them was not healthy. We removed them from the display and placed them into a quarantine pond (600g). The smaller of the two rays would eat but would lose weight faster than she could put it on. She's extremely lethargic and overall, just a poor sight. The larger female is very active, eats like a champ but obviously coming from the same tank and supplier we wanted to take all precautions necessary. As far as medicating does anyone have any experience with treating marine rays? My bet would be an internal parasite as there are no external symptoms or injuries. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of information on treating marine rays and our normal fish Qt uses copper and some other meds not safe for elasmobranchs. Thank you for any help you guys can provide!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Rays often don't ship well from overseas. In fact, many dealers won't guarantee live arrival on rays. Of the two blue spot rays, this is the hardier one. The ribbontail ray, Taeniura lymma is a lot more delicate.

You can treat them with praziquantel. If you don't have any on hand, you can use General Cure or Prazipro. Bear in mind though that prazi only treats internal cestodes and external flukes. These rays could have other issues.

Jay

 

[ethankoch888]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Rays often don't ship well from overseas. In fact, many dealers won't guarantee live arrival on rays. Of the two blue spot rays, this is the hardier one. The ribbontail ray, Taeniura lymma is a lot more delicate.

You can treat them with praziquantel. If you don't have any on hand, you can use General Cure or Prazipro. Bear in mind though that prazi only treats internal cestodes and external flukes. These rays could have other issues.

Jay

Hi Jay!

Thanks for the response! Assuming you received two new rays with those symptoms would your general quarentine protocol just feature observation and praziquantel? Or would you treat proactively for an array of other possible parasites/issues?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi Jay!

Thanks for the response! Assuming you received two new rays with those symptoms would your general quarentine protocol just feature observation and praziquantel? Or would you treat proactively for an array of other possible parasites/issues?

Generally, for these rays, I use 45 days of observation and two prazi treatments during that time, perhaps weeks one and two.