Stingray question

If you have a limited budget then rays aren't for you. Most require big tanks,all of them require good filtration and most of this can't be achieved unless you have a little coin. Best you research first and there is lots too read on here that will answer your questions about rays. Not for the novice aquarist.

Big stingrays=easy to care for but more expensive to maintain and small stingrays(excluding hystrix and mini marbles)=harder to care for but a little cheaper to maintain as they can go in 180 gallon tanks. Bigger stingrays will eventually require at least a 3' wide tank or wider and 6 to 8 feet long.

Look into Hystrix rays and mini marble motoros as they may be okay in a 180. Never owned a hystrix and not into brown rays so can't say much about them except for what I have read from other members on here. If you want a challenge then you can look into Retic and scobina but they are harder to care for and scobina are hard to obtain along with both being picky eaters. FYI No black ray can live in a 180 for life.

Cannisters won't cut it. Sump for the win. 180 is far too small IMO, minimum 360 for male ray

a 360 minimum for 1 male ray? I kept a male marble (mini 10inch disk fully grown) in a 6x2x2.5 for close to 5 years and he was very healthy and I eventually sold him due a change in stock the only draw-back is that with smaller systems you cant afford to miss on a water change or filter maintenance but you can over come these problems by over filtering the tank by using 3 separate filters I used 2 large fluval and 1 fx5 external canister filters so that when I cleaned one the other 2 were more than capable of keeping everything stable and to keep on top of water changes add a drip system through a good HMA pre filter unit. If you put heaters in the main tank were the rays are remember to use heater guards as must some heaters now come with guards as part of their construction.

If you are set on a ray, but have limited space - I highly suggest looking at saltwater. There are several marine rays that are very hardy and will thrive in a tank like a 180 gallon.

What's bare minimum for survival is borderline cruel to do to a creature that's native to a MASSIVE river system with a ridiculous amount of water flow, they're natural instinct is to swim in powerful current. To contain them like that would be the equivalent to being locked in a closet but fed well and cleaned up after.

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