Atlantic rays

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guppy said:
Are these rays less touchy about water quality than the river rays?
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They transition through all chemistries existing in Florida waterways. Including highway and agricultural runoff, fuel spills, industrial/residential pollution, etc. I'd venture to guess that a properly maintained indoor system would have this species thriving and reproducing.
 
In addition, these rays prefer a high pH. The rivers they live in have a baserock of limestone. Also, as with all elasmobranchs, they prefer an environment with as low of a free-floating bacteria count as possible. I'm an advocate of using UV on the outlets of the filter to keep the bacteria population in the filter and not in the water column. These rays are also sensitive to the influence of electric fields. So, the addition of a grounding probe to their system is beneficial.
 
Be careful which common name gets attached to which species. The true atlantic stingray will get over 6' across and need LOADS of swimming space. I've kept them before. Do you have a picture of it? There are smaller rays that are often named "atlantic" though....which sounds like what this one probably is.
 
The St Johns River was mentioned in an earlier post. So, I'm assuming we're referring to Dasyatis sabina which is the smallest of Dasyatid rays reaching only 23" max in their 9 year life-span. Usual sizes for this species is around 11" for the males and 14" for the females (disk width).

dasyatis sabina.jpg
 
The store where I have been whatching these rays has had several florida gars in with the rays for about two weeks. They seem to be doing well with the rays. What other fish might be compatible with them?
 
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