Flower Ray P.Schroderi Success stories?

Luckily I am cheerful this morning because I typed this long reply and when done it said I could not connect to server and it got lost so here it is again.

I have kept flowers on and off in my almost 7 years of ray keeping with the longest about a year and a half. I have had 11 flowers and one tiger. What I can tell you about flowers is they are high energy and burn lots of calories but are slow eaters. I kept mine with blacks marbles and jags. The other rays would clear the tank by the time a flower could eat one piece. The flowers I had loved ghost shrimp and would take almost a month to eat anything else. I would convert them to shrimp. Flowers also like to bite, they usually do not cause damage but are like a mosquito and can annoy the other rays. If another ray starts to bite back they can get stressed and may stop eating. They bite each other as well but tend to bite one ray more than others.

If you get a flower I highly recommend a 2-3 month maybe longer isolation to get them healthy and strong. I would have a backup system or divider you can use if they do get stressed you can isolate. They can go downhill really fast when the are under 10". If you are keeping with other rays be prepared for your feedings to double in time as you will most likely have to feed the flower longer so it can get enough food.

The tiger I had was larger and he loved worms and would not touch ghost shrimp. Must be a diet thing in the wild since they are in two different locations. As far as comparing the two minus the markings you cannot tell them apart. The one advantage of a tiger is you can get them larger where as a flower 8" is max. I will say that in full color and in person a tiger or a flower will put other rays to shame. If I were to get another one it would be a 12" plus wild tiger. The one I had was a wild 14" one and he went right in with the others just fine after a week of qt.

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Had my flower for 2 yrs and concur with everything Mike just said. But I cant emphasize how much slower they are at eating their food. Smaller mouths......chew and chew and chew........

I have to agree with the above as well. I've had a couple flowers and a tiger as well. First flower did not make it very long, if I recall it just wasn't a healthy import (this was 8ish years ago). The second one I tried fared much better. I had it close to a year before I sold it to go off to college. I kept it in with some larger motoros. As mentioned above, it was a very slow eater, but so long as I got it enough food the ray did well, she had no problems keeping up with the motoros. Very neat rays, especially if you get them on black sand, they really darken up and stand out well.

Isn't a 500 gal to small for flower and tiger rays

I haven't kept any myself as I felt my tank was way to small for them


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i will also agree. they will do fine i think in a species only tank if you can get a healthy one. Mixing with black rays or motoros probably wont work well. It could but probably not.

On a different note you dont see them for sale much anymore. since shawn is gone, he was the one who brought them in back a few years ago.
I agree they are one of the neatest rays out there!

T1KARMANN said:

Isn't a 500 gal to small for flower and tiger rays

I haven't kept any myself as I felt my tank was way to small for them


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thats probably too small for all the rays we keep

I personally have never seen a flower larger than 20" or so maybe a little larger, even on you tube. Seen plenty of Tigers larger. Doesnt mean they dont reach the reported sizes. Probably just because most dont live long enough.

I know John had some for sale a month or two ago. Supposed to have more soon. Would love to get some at 10-12".

keepinfish said:

thats probably too small for all the rays we keep

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pfffffffft. I could keep a half dozen of my custom starved till they are stunted midget rays in there for life.

On the subject of Flower/Tiggers...... I've never personally kept them YET. I hope to someday when I have a big pond again, but like many have mentioned I would plan on a species only habitat.

The Falks I have sound just like Mike described his Flowers. I tried off and on to keep them with other rays and after I lost one I gave up and now keep them by themselves. They have different feeding requirements. Less food but more often. Seems they can burn a meal off in an afternoon. Crazy long chew times. Very easily intimidated by other rays if they are even remotely territorial or too crazy at feeding time.

I'd never personally get one with the intentions of housing with blackies.....

keepinfish said:

thats probably too small for all the rays we keep

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Nah that's fine for a few rays depending on dimensions but I would say tiger and maybe flower need a 5-6ft wide min from the sizes I have seen


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