my stingrays

Question
Wow i think that you may have been right i printed some of those pictures and i took a magnafine glass and looked at the bottom of my stingray and that appears that it might be what im dealing with. The websites do say that they usually come from fish from the wild and thats of course where stingrays are caught, i was wondering if maybe you could give me some information on what i should do if anything. I know i cant give them any medication because they are very sensitive. I know i can give them products that are Herbal medicines like Melafix is a good one. Please help with any advice on how to get rid of these... i only see 2 that are attached to him

-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
I have a 120 gallon tank and i have been keeping up stingrays for quite a while now.. a lot of poeple give up because they are quite the job. i have had several sting rays and finaly have been able to find the set(2) that are comfortable in my tank and have been eating well and are even hand fed. I have had them for over 5 months now, for stingrays thats pretty long. On one of their bellys it almost appears that he is carrying around babies, but when you look closer it appears to be little crab like creatures. I dont know if this is a parasite or what. I fed them frozen food so there is no way that i accidently put anything into the tank, i was wondering if i should pinch them off or what is going on. Im pretty well educated on stingrays, but i never heard or read anything about these. Please help
Answer -
Hi Kevin;

The only thing that comes to mind is argulus, also known as fish lice. Here is a google search to argulus photos to see if that's it;

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=argulus

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!  

Answer
Hi Kevin;

You might try to pluck them off. I've done that before on large koi and goldfish. It may be hard to do and pretty gross, but it works on the adult argulus. You may see more later if they have reproduced. I am not familiar enough with rays to know if they struggle much, but put them on a damp paper towel (from aquarium water). Do the best you can to keep them still, working very quickly. Use a tweezer to grab the little nasties off the ray and plunge them in hot water or alcohol to kill them. After that you might be able to find out about a remedy that kills them in case there are more. I just don't know enough about rays to suggest anything.

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

Come on over and join us on the freshwater fish forum at About.com to get even more information too;
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

My member name is ChrisR62. See You There!