Hey guys, I was wondering if you know of any reliable places to find healthy rays that aren't too crazy expensive? Honestly I think I have my heart set on a retic, and my lfs has some but from what I understand they may be over priced. They are young pups about 4-5" disc but are $100 a piece. From what I understand thats about the price of most motoros and that a retic will generally be priced a bit cheaper? Thanks in advance for any help.
Reliable sources for purchasing rays?
- Thread starter gharner
- Start date
Find a local breeder or maybe some who's near in your place would post in here. Go to MFK marketplace then place an ad. There might be someone to contact you. Offer him some drinks for a discount lol.
Health is more important than price for any ray under the $200 mark. A healthy ray will eat through $100 in food in short order, an unhealthy ray will be dead - and how much does that save?
If you're worried about saving $20, rays probably aren't for you.
If you're worried about saving $20, rays probably aren't for you.
Very good point, the rays at the lfs look healthy and Ive seen them eat...I just figured I didn't want to support a business that is selling wild caught individuals for twice what they're worth thats all. They currently have a motoro female 6" for $299, and a small retic for $99. Not so much of an issue on price as it is finding healthy captive bred rays, which locally seems hard to do so I may need to go with the lfs regardless. Do you guys have a preference on buying from online as opposed to your lfs? I like the fact that I can see the rays ahead of time at the lfs, but they're currently kept in a 40 breeder so I wasn't sure if that would negatively affect their health from stress and if online somewhere would be smarter?
$300 for a 6" Motoro is 3x its value IMO.
First you need to decide what ray you want - there is a big difference between a Motoro and a Retic. Then: Do you have a big enough tank, do you want to breed them, will your filters cope..
You can spend some time looking at the rays that pop up in the for sale forum here from time to time and do some checking on the people who are selling and you should be able to figure out who is legit. Or you can probably ping someone a PM here and get an opinion on a seller and their rays. The more time you take over it the more educated your final choice will be.
Once eating, a WC ray will usually do OK unless any internal damage occurred in capture or shipment but you'd rarely have any way to know that.
First you need to decide what ray you want - there is a big difference between a Motoro and a Retic. Then: Do you have a big enough tank, do you want to breed them, will your filters cope..
You can spend some time looking at the rays that pop up in the for sale forum here from time to time and do some checking on the people who are selling and you should be able to figure out who is legit. Or you can probably ping someone a PM here and get an opinion on a seller and their rays. The more time you take over it the more educated your final choice will be.
Once eating, a WC ray will usually do OK unless any internal damage occurred in capture or shipment but you'd rarely have any way to know that.
Thanks for the input. The rays at the lfs do look nice, but they're nothing special. I think the over pricing is simply because they are not common around here at all and this lfs is the only one local that I have somewhat consistently seen fw rays. I prefer a retic simply because of their adult size as opposed to something like a motoro. I've been researching for several years and finally decided I would actually prefer a retic, even though they can be picky, just as long as its a healthy specimen that is eating. I would hate to purchase a ray only to fail in getting him/her to eat a variety of foods. I guess not many people are into breeding retics since they can be difficult to breed and aren't worth as much as some of the other rays?
Yes, those are likely the reasons few people breed retics. There's one person on here who frequently has litters of retic pups though: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?524404-CB-retic-pups
Awesome, Thank you for the help! Im going to keep my eyes peeled over the next few weeks while I wait for my tank to cycle so Ill have some time to check around a bit.
Oddly enough 3X is what most LFS mark up fish stock... especially ones likely to take a long time to sell, require expensive food and lots of tank space to maintain...
Matt
Matt
