noobi willing to listen to old hands

[rtate]

hi all
iv been keeping fish for many years now and after a break of 3 yrs am looking to setup my old 84x39x36 tank with a big sump .
done lots of reading on the stickys and on some of the threads on rays but would love to hear first had acounts of advice and idears from you guys...(and girls)
first of there is so much to read and look into but i need to sort out and focuse on setup and a ray that is best suited for my tank and ability's .
im hoping to keep one pair of ray in this set up and no other fish (to start with) .

sooooo ! just to start with what species of ray would you think a new ray keeper with a tank of said footprint should be looking at ?
id love to get them as young as possible (i have loved growing out my fish from young )
but is this wise for a new keeper of rays ?

one other thing at the moment id love to know is .is it ok for small rays to go into a big deep tank ie can a tank for young rays be to big ?
as said this is a new area of fishkeeping for me so if i seem a bit dumb pls dont flame me lol
cheers for any advice.
rich.

 

[vamptrev]

A big tank should be fine for small rays as long as there isnt too much current and you can get food to them.

As far as a good starter ray, it rely comes down to how much money you want to spend. Leos, hens, motoros, hystrix, are all pretty hardy just different price ranges


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[doyboy]

A big tank should be fine for small rays as long as there isnt too much current and you can get food to them.

As far as a good starter ray, it rely comes down to how much money you want to spend. Leos, hens, motoros, hystrix, are all pretty hardy just different price ranges


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Got to agree with that, I found most rays iv kept pretty much the same, hystrix stay smaller, as vamptrev said, alot comes down to what you wanna spend. Growing on rays from pups is great, your see them develop and grow plus I find it easier to train young pups into the food that you want them to eat.

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[Raymann88]

I would suggest getting pups around 4-6 months old if you can. They are not as sensitive as newly born pups and you can still train them on food easily and watch them develope. I just moved my trio of 6 month old marble Motoros to a 400 gallon tank. They are loving it! No problems with uneaten food. The tank is big enough they actually swim in the tank instead of just scooting along the bottom.

 

[tonyt]

That's great to have a good sized tank to start with . Keeping rays is such a long term deal , if you keep there water clean ! I'm lucky to say I've kept the 3 basic rays, motoro , hysterix and Leo/ bd,
All that matters is what you like to keep and what you think is a fair price to pay for them


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[scott s]

A big tank should be fine for small rays as long as there isnt too much current and you can get food to them.

As far as a good starter ray, it rely comes down to how much money you want to spend. Leos, hens, motoros, hystrix, are all pretty hardy just different price ranges


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Agreed. I would also add Pearl to the hearty list.

 

[rtate]

big thanks chaps for the response and help !!! fantastic
iv now got the sp of rays that you think would suit a new guy like me so im gona find out what is localy avalible to me then make a choice on a sp and do the reading up that i need to do .
thanks again all and will probly be back with more q's in the coming week's .

 

[T1KARMANN]

If I was you and setting up the tank I would drill a overflow pipe in the sump and run a drip which means no water changes by hand

I would also put some mid water fish in to clean up tinfoil barbs are great

Don't forget you tank is very tall and will look bare with just rays I know mine would


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[rtate]

If I was you and setting up the tank I would drill a overflow pipe in the sump and run a drip which means no water changes by hand

I would also put some mid water fish in to clean up tinfoil barbs are great

Don't forget you tank is very tall and will look bare with just rays I know mine would


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thanks bud ! can you recomend a link to the "drip" so i can look into that a bit ?
i will look to add other fish at some point like you say with just bottom dwellers in the tank it will look bare .
my idear was that just focusing on the rays would give me the best start .but now you have said that maybe starting the tank of with some other mid water swimmers will help me get the water parameters stable before i add the ray's ?
i do have a soft spot for bala shark .will thay be a good choice or are thay a bit to fast and bizzy ?
cheers rich.

 

[bonesb66]

Personally i think Bala shark are a bit slow growing and would end up as food for the rays - I'm sure vamptrev would disagree with his monster Bala's but it is rare you see them at that size.
Tin foil barbs are great at cleaning up as T1 suggested - definately something to consider.
Myself, i quite like the dollars for midwater but i've never mixed them with rays so i can't comment on the compatability on that one.

With regard to the drip system T1 mentioned, it's mentioned quite a lot on here, usually by T1 actually lol.
I understand why because i use it myself, and once you use it you wonder why all other fish keepers dont!

It's very simply, you purchase a HMA filter (not RO) and you connect it to the mains, it has 6mm pipe coming out of it which you just put in your tank/sump.
In the sump there is a hole drilled so that when the fresh water drips/trickles in and the system as a whole overflows the water will exit this hole in your sump - this will be plumbed out the wall to your nearest drain.

This completely removes the need for manual water change and keeps nitrates very low for your rays - i couldn't reccomend it high enough, if you think it sounds complicated it really isn't and we're more than happy to talk you through it step by step.

The unit can be found just on google or ebay.

I use a company called Devotedly Discus, T1 uses a company called collins water products so i could vouch that either of these companies will give you a good product.

If the cost seems high, think what you save in tap conditioner on a large tank and you're not far out either direction you go.

Hope that helps