 |
How
to Keep Your New Freshwater Stingray |
|||||||||||||||||||||
| Amphibians Axolotls Caecilian Worm Chaco Toad Mud Puppies Newts General Newts Eastern Newts Golden Newts Mandarin Salamanders Suriname Toad Tadpoles Terrarium I Terrarium II USA Toads Water Dogs Misc. Toads Frogs Bull Clawed Dumpy Dwarf Fire-Belly Floating Green Tree Leopard Pac Man Pipa pipa Pyxie Red-Eyed Tree Tomato Misc Frogs Misc Frogs II Misc Frogs III Misc Frogs IV Misc Frogs V Animals
Birds Kids
at Pet Expo 5
Snakes Alive Sulcata
Grindal
Worms
Decorating
How
to Start
Sponge
Filters
Pet World Visit
|
Diet.
You won’t keep these guys if you feed flake foods.
They want live or frozen foods. Favorites
include ghost shrimp and red
wigglers. Supposedly they can pop open
those mini-clams -- too expensive to find out. They
like frozen blood worms, plankton, and krill.
Remove any uneaten food immediately.
They will eat live fish at night.
Feeder goldfish and rosy reds work best. Avoid
guppies and other livebearers that pick at them all day.
If you try a crayfish as a tank cleaner, take
off his claws. Your ray will wind up
eating him sooner or later.
Colors.
Many different patterned stingrays appear on the market.
Most sport a mottled or spotted pattern on a neutral colored body.
They change colors to camouflage against being eaten by predators.
Sexes.
Males have “claspers” at the base of their stinger.
They use these to grasp the females during copulation.
You can spot these claspers even on the young ones.
Size.
You find them for sale at three to eight inches across.
They get lots bigger. Even
the so-called “teacups” grow to 18 inches across.
Give them a big tank. You
will need 100+ gallons or bigger to house your stingray.
Sam Musilli, Mansfield, Ohio, October 21, 2008
Hey, sorry about this. I hate to be one of those people that have been caring for whatever for a month and argue with you, who has 30+ years of experience. But I work at a pet store here in Mansfield, Ohio, and we have reticulated stingrays for $59.99. They only get about a foot long. Also, they are debarbed. I am only 17, and we may order from a different wholesaler than you. I just thought I would let you know. A: Nothing wrong with being 17. I think I was 17 for nearly 10 years myself. I'm glad you're interested enough to report the facts. I'll add your input to my stingray page (and look a little deeper into the reticulateds). I just checked today's 10/23/08 prices (because I order today) to see if retics were available. They're not, but I'll keep my eyes peeled or at least open. Thanks for your input. LA
Thomas Zoiutis, New York, January 17, 2009
My name is Tom, I live in New York and I am an avid freshwater ray enthusiast. I am writing in response to Sam from Ohio's response to your article. The information he provided you is false about the size of Potamotrygon reticulatas. They often grow to about 18 inches in diameter and 24 inches in length. I currently house 3 retics in my 600 gallon custom built aquarium. All rays grow to a substantial size including even the smaller black rays and will require a large aquarium of over 100 gallons when fully grown. It would be cruel to keep them in anything smaller. Perhaps the rays Sam deals with are mal nourished and have been stunted in their growth. I'm not trying to come off as a know it all. Just trying to help spread the right information and perhaps save some animals from being miskept. A: Thanks for your input. I always agree with anyone that agrees with me. Go figure. I'm adding your report right below Sam's report. LA Tank
Mates. Stingrays
ignore fishes too large to eat. However,
larger fishes like cichlids will munch on them.
Avoid the plecos also. They
give them hickies. Arowanas usually
make good mixers with them. Your
arowanas stay at the top. Your rays
stay at the bottom (most of the time). Plants.
Forget plants. Stingrays like to
roil up their substrate in search of tasty morsel.
They also like to flip their substrate onto their backs to camouflage
themselves. And since you want a
thin substrate (or none), plants won’t survive at all.
You can add weighted plastic plants. Or maybe plants in good-sized
pots.
Substrate. Some hobbyists keep their stingrays in a bare tank. Others use sand or small, smooth gravel. Most agree that rough edged gravel will injure your ray. Temperature. Since rays come from South America (the warmer parts), you need to keep yours warm – 80o. You’ll need a submersible heater. Econo heaters aren’t big enough to do the job. Cover your heater or your stingray could injure itself when your heater turns on. Actually, make that WILL injure itself on uncovered heaters.
Water Conditions. Stingrays cannot endure dirty water. Ammonia and nitrites will kill them. You need good filtration and frequent 25% water changes to keep your ray alive. Breeding.
Oddly enough, stingrays breed in captivity.
Their eggs develop and hatch inside the female’s body.
The baby stingers come out alive and ready to rock and roll.
They get along well with their parents.
Your biggest challenge: Finding
a male and female of the same species. Many
look quite similar to us but not to the rays.
And when you order them, you’re not always sure what you’ll get. Care
of the Fry. Give
your fry the same foods as your adult stingrays. Remove
any uneaten non-live foods even more efficiently. Price.
You’ll rarely see these guys for sale under $100.
The less common stingray species cost much more. Their
Name.
Obviously stingrays get their name from their long tail with a
“stinger” on the end. Do not
think those stingers won’t sting you. The
pain from their stinger can incapacitate you.
In the regions they come from, the locals fear them more than piranhas.
The stingray’s habit of lying beneath the mud or sand makes them dangerous to
anyone wading in the shallows. Last Word. You’ve probably figured out by now that stingrays are not a good “starter fish.” You’ll need a considerable investment to keep your ray alive – before you shell out for the fish itself. Don’t buy a stingray then try to find out what it needs to stay alive. Just because you see a young one in a bare 10-gallon tank does not mean you can keep your stingray that way for long. If you attempt that strategy, your stingray will wind up in your freezer. We hear they’re good eatin.’ Avoid that stinger -- even on dead stingrays. LA
Neda Ariania, Iran (I think), July 12, 2010
Hi, to see the first spawning of stingrays in Tehran, Iran, please: look at these links:  These freshwater stingrays were born on the 7 / 7 / 2010.
Thanks for your great website.
A: Khayli mamnoon. I'm adding your report and the links to my stingray page. I couldn't tell if the photo was copyrighted. I hope it was okay to include it here. I encourage everyone to take a look at the three links. LA © 2003, © 2004, © 2006, © 2009, © 2010 LA Productions
3600 Sixth Avenue Corner of Sixth & Euclid Avenues Des Moines, IA 50313 515 283-0300 |
Anabantids
Betta Leaf Betta Breed 1 Betta Breed II Betta Info Betta Housing Betta Pla Kat Choc Gourami Climbing Perch Gourami Pix Kiss. Gourami Osphronemus Pearl Gourami More Pearls Paradise Fish Snakehead Spawn Gourami T. trichopterus Catfish Banjo Bullheads Bull Sharks Channel Corydoras Cory Pics Electric Glass Hoplos Otocinclus Pangassius Pictus Plecostomus Pleco Bristle Pleco Costly I Pleco Costly II Pleco Costly III Pleco Costly IV Pleco Costly V Pleco Costly VI Pleco Costly VII Raphael Red-Tail Shovelnose Sun Synodontis Synodontis petricola Turushuki Catfish Upside-down USD Gold Flake Misc Catfish Misc Catfish II Misc Catfish III Misc Catfish IV Misc Catfish V Cichlids African I African II African III African IV Af. Furniture Amer. Small Amer. Med Amer. Large Angelfish I Angelfish II Angelfish III Angelfish IV More Angels Buttikoferi Chocolate Chocolate Spawning Cichlid Decor Cichlid Food Convicts Convicts 2 Convicts 3 Convicts 4 Dempseys More Dempseys Jack Dempsey Spawn Discus Dither Fish Flower Horn Green Terror Jaguar More Jaguars Jaguar Spawning
Jaguar Spawning II
Rainbowfish, Dwarf Neon
Koi III
Longear Sunfish
Misc Odd V Pond Info |
||||||||||||||||||||
LA
LA
LA
LA
LA
LA