Cortez Ray ID

[Tucc185]

An LFS near me has a small sw ray labeled as a Cortez ray. It looks a lot like a california ray, which I would expect as they are from the same genus, but this ray has no brown spots at all. Do small cortez rays not have the distinc spots? How else would I be able to distinguish the two? Any pics of small cortez rays for comparison would be really helpful, thanks

 

[Zoodiver]

Depending on what source you use, some "experts" say three of the Urobaits: maculatus (Cortez), concentricus (Spotted Round) and even the halleri (California Round) are all synonyms of the same animals. All are from the same area and look basically the same.

From what I understand, the Coretz have a more rounded front edge, where the California/Round rays have a more pointed nose - similar in look to the Atlantic rays. The Spotted Round rays have spots (obvisouly), but only under proper conditions. If the animal is in a stressful situation, the spots will fade into almost nothing. They have a somewhat pointed nose as well, just not as pronounced as the California.

 

[krj-1168]

There appears to be alot of variation within each of the species of the Round Rays (Genus: Urobatis).

These variations can have numerous causes - including health related, stress related, or possible color morph mutations.

 

[Tucc185]

ok, thanks a lot for the advice. After doing some photo searches I think it is a Cortez but with very muted spots.

 

[Fishymel]

I got mine on the internet labeled as a cortez, because all the cortez rays around here look liked californias although labeled cortez. When it came though it looked like the ones I see around here. All I know though is when you see them come in they are about 6 inches long, and always that size, so I personally think we can assume it is in fact a cortez. I think it would be better if we in the hobby just referred to it as "small californian stingray from the urobatis genus" because that really is all we can say about them.

Here is mine, I've had him about 3 monthes, very healthy and fat, but no/little signs of growth. He is about 6 inches from head to tail.

 

[krj-1168]

I got mine on the internet labeled as a cortez, because all the cortez rays around here look liked californias although labeled cortez. When it came though it looked like the ones I see around here. All I know though is when you see them come in they are about 6 inches long, and always that size, so I personally think we can assume it is in fact a cortez. I think it would be better if we in the hobby just referred to it as "small californian stingray from the urobatis genus" because that really is all we can say about them.

Here is mine, I've had him about 3 monthes, very healthy and fat, but no/little signs of growth. He is about 6 inches from head to tail.

Well - it certain looks like a Californian Stingray.

The bad thing about buying sharks & rays from the 'net is that some online dealers are known to have mislabeled the sharks or rays.

I've seen cases of Coral Catsharks(Atelomycterus marmoratus) being sold as Marbled Catsharks (Atelomycterus macleayi). And of course - Ornate Wobbies or Spotted Wobbies being sold as Japanese Wobbies.

As for it not growing much - that's a common trait of Round rays - often they may only grow as much as 1.1"(2.8cm) in disc width during an entire year.