2 new Reticulata pups

Picked up a male and female Reticulata pup 2 days ago, both home-bred, not wildcaught, and looking super healthy. I'm a first time ray owner, been reading a lot, and trying to do everything right the first time around! They are 26 days old, super active and settling in well! I already saw them nipping a little bit of brine shrimp yesterday! They are in my 180G 6x2x2 together with some angelfish, a flagtail, 2 oscars, 2 spotted pike characins, 2 senegal birchirs, 2 electrict blue pulchers, and 1 black ghost knife fish.

Filtration wise I have 3 big canisters hooked up to the tank, which turn over 6x the aquarium volume, all filled with high quality biological material, and including UV-sterilisation.

I'm aware that the female is definetly going to outgrow my tank within 2 years. Hopefully I'll be able to convince by gf to allow a tank upgrade by then (so my cichla-wish can also be fufilled ). If I'm not able to upgrade I'll be getting rid of the female by then, and I'll keep the male .



Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUWAuoaOT28

Do any experienced ray keepers have some tips to get the food to the rays? They were on brine shrimp at the guy where I picked them up. However, my other fish all LOVE brineshrimp as well, and I'm afraid this way not enough gets to the rays. I've tried with a PVC tube, no succes, and my next move is sticking the frozen cubes in front of them in the sand.

Thanx for your reply Ray! This is all good info that I can use! I'm definetely going to go out and buy nightcrawlers first thing tomorrow. I have no issues with getting another canister for them in the future! I've actually been lucky with my oscars; they are VERY mellow to all the other fish and behave more like clumsy puppies than agressive predators. They do, however, have eyes bigger than their stomach, which makes it hard for me to get the food to the rays, which haven't shown any 'greedy' behaviour yet. They seem to search for food after all the other fishes already ate it... Will they become more greedy once they settle in and become more hungry? Or are they always slow feeders? I'll definitely going to buy nightcrawlers first thing tomorrow. Putting the frozen cube in the sand right in front of them with tweezers was the only way I could think of to get the food directly to the rays. Do you have any other suggestions?

Edit: Since you are an experienced keeper, do they look healthy to you?