do stingrays like to be in groups?
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:thumbsup hello all im new here a friend told me of this place and glad he did..Questio n. Ive got a 130 gallon tank 5 balla shark 3 incandescent shark 1dragon fish,and my pride a tea cup ray,,question would it b safe to put another teacup in there? thankyou
Zoodiver said:
Can you provide any references? If rays actually respond physiologically to being kept in groups, it's certainly news to me.
I have kept up to 3 Rays in a single 300G tank and do not notice any behaviour that they are group/social kind.
Their actions are primarily very individual and even single Rays in tank situations dun seem to impose and stress at all.
Their actions are primarily very individual and even single Rays in tank situations dun seem to impose and stress at all.
thanks for info DWDavidW said:The correct answer to this (imo) would be Yes AND No
Think about what happens in the wild....
after the annual rains all Amazon fish have millions of extra square miles of flooded forest to spread out in....and then , as the waters recede they 'go with the flow' back into the main river channels...
I also agree with the comment about anthropomorphisation and would look for other reasons as to why an individual ray would do better or worse by itself or in a group...
I also don;t think you can call rays 'primitive'....ancient for sure, tracing their history back about 300 million years, but they are highly evolved and have relatively large brains and are quite intelligent....
Booger - My input is based on what I've seen from working with them. Individual rays will be less active, feed less, tend to have physical issues alot sooner and over all just don't do as well as rays kept in groups. Granted, I've only raised a few hundred FW rays. But I've spent alot of time watching and documenting almost anything one can observe to see how to guide the rest of the professional keepers as to what would be best for keeping them in captivity.
These fish are highly social animals and respond very well to things that would be considered "mental enrichment". Though, I agree they are HIGHLY food motivated animals. There are several keepers out there working on target training and station feeding to disapate some aggression seen during feeding time in large groups (groups over 30+ rays).
These fish are highly social animals and respond very well to things that would be considered "mental enrichment". Though, I agree they are HIGHLY food motivated animals. There are several keepers out there working on target training and station feeding to disapate some aggression seen during feeding time in large groups (groups over 30+ rays).
