Hey all -- I'm new to the forum and new to rays in general. Not new to fish keeping as my dad has kept every kind of fish imaginable and currently has 4 large tanks and a gigantic yard pond with breeding koi. I've been researching getting a stingray and right now have my heart set on an Atlantic freshwater ray from Florida. My LFS has them and sells 2-3 per month, and I talked with one of their regular customers that has purchased from them and has been keeping rays for 12 years. He gave me some solid information about various species, which is why I decided on this one. He also went over my setup with me and I have the prepwork started, my water cycling, and have done a LOT of research online, BUT...I can't help but wonder why I really only find forums and articles about people keeping South American rays vs. this gorgeous and interactive species. Anyone here keep them? Thoughts on them? Are they more or less difficult than Amazonian rays? Personality differences? Thanks for any input.
Dasyatis sabina -- Atlantic Rays -- Anyone keep them?
- Thread starter PinkLady
- Start date
One of the main arguments against keeping Dasyatis Sabina in freshwater is the the amount of waste they produce in freshwater. The way that they are able to tolerate freshwater is to increase their urine output (and thus ammonia output) by tenfold to rid the body of excess water that is absorbed throughout the body. This means you need to do many more water changes to keep up. They are much easier to keep in salt water.
Most of the articles I read and the advice I got from that guy that keeps them is that they do better in brackish than freshwater, due to the urine output like you mentioned, and that is what my plan is. Right now I have a 125g tank with a 300g filter and can easily add a second to double the rate of filtration if needed. She is about 8" wide right now so when she gets bigger, I will be upgrading to a larger tank as we'll have moved to our new house by then and I will have the lower level available. I don't plan to have any tankmates for her other than a few guppies hanging out in the top levels until she eats them, so not really any increased bio-load other than the ray herself. It will cycle for 3 weeks before she comes home to ensure I can get the levels right -- chlorine and nitrate are at 0, nitrite is still hovering at 10-15 but the tank has only been up for 2 days so there isn't much balance in it yet. I did add a Nitra-Sorb pouch to the filter and was thinking about getting CaribSea sand, although I'm not sure if it's meant for anything other than saltwater? Alkalinity is at 8.0 but that should come down a bit more over time as well. My only concern is the water hardness, as my landlord doesn't have a water softener for my house. Hardness is over 300ppm, maxing out the test. Are there aquarium water softeners available? I did read 2 articles that said Atlantics can handle harder water than you would think, that they adjust and do just fine. But she would need the ability gradually get used to it through routine partial water changes, so until then I need to be able to make it softer in the beginning.
Has anyone been tagged by one of these rays? The one I have on hold has a full tail but her barb has been removed, although I do know they often grow back. She is very active, docile, and eats very well, she actually took a few pieces of food from the manager's hand, so I have hopes this is something I could continue doing with her. Overall I just think it's a gorgeous ray and will be really awesome to watch, especially for my 3-year-old.
Has anyone been tagged by one of these rays? The one I have on hold has a full tail but her barb has been removed, although I do know they often grow back. She is very active, docile, and eats very well, she actually took a few pieces of food from the manager's hand, so I have hopes this is something I could continue doing with her. Overall I just think it's a gorgeous ray and will be really awesome to watch, especially for my 3-year-old.
if you can religioulsy do water changes.... and u would have to do them i think at least every 2nd day for best results.
But as you mentioned your keeping them in brackish with no tankmates.
And i think this is the next best thing to being full salt.
But yeh good work on doing your research before!
Keeping in mind is these are salt water rays who, swim into freshwater for a period of time. But does not make them freshwater rays!
300g filter sounds crazy.
lol but what i dont get is, wouldnt u want the 300g for the tank? and a 125 as the filter? or did i read that wrong.
But as you mentioned your keeping them in brackish with no tankmates.
And i think this is the next best thing to being full salt.
But yeh good work on doing your research before!
Keeping in mind is these are salt water rays who, swim into freshwater for a period of time. But does not make them freshwater rays!
300g filter sounds crazy.
lol but what i dont get is, wouldnt u want the 300g for the tank? and a 125 as the filter? or did i read that wrong.
If freshwater was the route that someone absolutely had to take, go big and go drip. If we lived in Florida (or any of those other horrid states that don't allow Potamotrygon) this is probably the route we would try. The amount of water that would have to be dripped, and the size of the tank, would be prohibitive (to say the least). Salt is the way to go, it seems.
skylineiz;3248644; said:
The tank is a 125 gallon, the filter is designed to handle up to a 300 gallon. The normal filter to get for a 125 would have been a filter that handles up to 150g. I got a larger filter than was needed based on the advice of those I spoke to about these rays' large urine output and desire for higher water flow. Even with frequent water changes, the slightest nitrate spike can prove fatal with these rays so I feel I'd rather be safe than sorry. That's the main reason I chose not to have any tankmates, to not put any more stress on the filter and water balance than necessary. Plus I don't want to risk my ray getting hurt, or the ray hurting a tankmate -- not to mention that the ray is the center of attention in the tank anyway so why take away from how awesome she is.
Hmmm. The person I got my advice from has had these rays for 12 years and said my setup is fine for a juvie until she gets bigger later on. He's also been keeping his in brackish from the beginning and never had a problem, as long as the filtration is good and they get weekly partial water changes.
