Mantilla Rays?
- Thread starter moosemj
- Start date
I loaned my aqualog book out so I do not know what those rays are. Here is the pic of the one I had. He was wild caught out of Peru. According to Ross the ones he was getting came out of Brazil. This guy I had which I kick myself for selling was very rare in my opinion. I saw one other one for sale that looked like him. Other than that I have not seen another with his pattern.
8"
Right before he got sold
8"
Right before he got sold
I am sure Alan does not mind but I am sharing one of his pics. Mainly because it has my Jag female in the pic as a adolescent. Alan grew her up for me then graciously sold her to me. Anyways this was his big female mantilla type. This beast was captive bred and was a hybrid from 2 maybe 4 different rays. I know she had henlei in her. My point is mantilla type as us novice know them have been shown to come right out of the river but they are also produced in the tank as hybrids. For this reason I can see why some would say they are a natural hybrid. Back to my previous statements however we will never know. Unless you wear scuba gear for 4 months to a year and actually see the breeding happen in the river we will never know if they are a hybrid or their own species.
Since I have not got a response back from Richard Ross I will share the only information that I have seen him say on the matter. It is written and able to be seen and confirmed. Link below. And allot more reading on mantillas.
FishDog shared allot of great information and back ground, as we all know getting information from Brazil or getting rays from Brazil is very difficult due to the border closure. Allot of great rays are kept out of reach.
Richard Ross has spent a good amount of years studying stingrays, still his primary focus for even longer was reptiles, he is a Doctor by profession as a physician not a biologist. He like us has been learning and growing in this hobby over the years, that's why he started the stingray biology center for stingray study. He has just been doing it for allot more years than myself and many others and had some great help with previous dealing to get him going. My guess would be that through his reptiles he made allot of good contacts that lead him into stingrays as another hobby and then it grew from there just like it does for many of us. Many of us wish to grow in understanding and knowledge to help us be better keepers some just take it to different levels. Wish I had the means to go spend a year in Brazil and study rays. Would be an amazing experience and a great book with raw data.
Here are some of the pictures being referred to in the quote below.
Quote from Richard Ross 2011-
This looks like a true mantilla ray to me. I am the one who named the ray "mantilla ray" in my book on freshwater stingrays [published by Aqualog]. It was named 15 years ago after my friend Jose Mantilla who worked for an importer of ornamental fish in Florida, in the US. Jose always called me whenever a new ray was imported.*
I believed it to be a variant of P. hystrix, but while I am not sure of that, I do not know of any taxonomic reason for calling it a separate species. One of the primary characteristics is that the markings have a bluish color.
http://www.roggenforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3452&sid=b8f36ce1f1bc5cf4281100c5b8cf084f
Bluish color from my personal stock. One adult one pup.
I mean if you really look at these in person you would say that they have a bluish tint to them.
View attachment 1046249
Sent from the Monster Fish Keeping App
FishDog shared allot of great information and back ground, as we all know getting information from Brazil or getting rays from Brazil is very difficult due to the border closure. Allot of great rays are kept out of reach.
Richard Ross has spent a good amount of years studying stingrays, still his primary focus for even longer was reptiles, he is a Doctor by profession as a physician not a biologist. He like us has been learning and growing in this hobby over the years, that's why he started the stingray biology center for stingray study. He has just been doing it for allot more years than myself and many others and had some great help with previous dealing to get him going. My guess would be that through his reptiles he made allot of good contacts that lead him into stingrays as another hobby and then it grew from there just like it does for many of us. Many of us wish to grow in understanding and knowledge to help us be better keepers some just take it to different levels. Wish I had the means to go spend a year in Brazil and study rays. Would be an amazing experience and a great book with raw data.
Here are some of the pictures being referred to in the quote below.
Quote from Richard Ross 2011-
This looks like a true mantilla ray to me. I am the one who named the ray "mantilla ray" in my book on freshwater stingrays [published by Aqualog]. It was named 15 years ago after my friend Jose Mantilla who worked for an importer of ornamental fish in Florida, in the US. Jose always called me whenever a new ray was imported.*
I believed it to be a variant of P. hystrix, but while I am not sure of that, I do not know of any taxonomic reason for calling it a separate species. One of the primary characteristics is that the markings have a bluish color.
http://www.roggenforum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3452&sid=b8f36ce1f1bc5cf4281100c5b8cf084f
Bluish color from my personal stock. One adult one pup.
I mean if you really look at these in person you would say that they have a bluish tint to them.
View attachment 1046249
Sent from the Monster Fish Keeping App
How large do the Mantilla ray females get realistically and what is the growth rate like? I cannot find any solid information regarding confirmed max size and growth rate.
