First Black Diamond stingray and I have some concerns

[ODST_Kona]

Hey everyone!
This is my first post on here. I’ve been researching stingrays for a while, and the time finally came... I got one! I've had fish for close to 5 years now and a stingray has been the one dream fish I have been just eyeballing.


She came from another hobbyist who was new to stingrays, and while I think he cared about her, I don’t believe she was kept in the best conditions. When I got her, she had a cut on her back, another on her belly, and what looked like damage to the tip of her tail, possibly from a tankmate nipping at her (even past the barb).


It’s been about a month now, and her wounds are healing nicely. (Man, the meds were expensive though!) The cut on her back is no longer bloody, her color is starting to come back, and the tip of her tail is almost fully regrown.


That said, she’s still not very active. She spends most of the day buried in the sand, but every now and then, usually at night, she’ll get the zoomies for a bit. I love her already and just want to give her the best life possible, so I’m here to ask for help and learn from others with more experience.


Here are a few questions I’ve got so far:

1. Feeding & Pellet Training:
   She’s currently eating tilapia by hand every day. I’d really like to get her on pellets eventually. Any tips on how to start that transition? I’ve tried sneaking a few in during feeding, but not sure if that’s the right approach.
2. Sand Substrate Maintenance:
   I know sand vs. bare bottom is a hot debate, but I really want to keep sand in her tank. It seems more natural for her. What tools do you all use to sift or clean the sand effectively for barbs?
3. Activity Level:
   She’s been through a lot, and while she’s eating and occasionally swimming, I still worry about her. Do rays tend to become more active over time as they settle in? Or is there something I can do to encourage more movement, like target feeding?
4. Coloration:
   When I got her, she was a faded gray rather than a deep black. Could that be from stress or poor care? Or is she just still a juvenile and her color hasn’t fully developed yet?

 

[Ansorgii]

Hello,
I can help you with your questions, but for some, I need to ask some questions aswell to give better answers. Mainly what size is she, your tank and how does it look overall. Maybe you can post some pictures aswell, they always help to say more.

1. The most important thing you need to transition them is pellets they like and patience. For me, I got all my rays to transiton with the "Sera Granured Nature" (aswell as all my wild caught eartheaters, Cichla and way more, I can only recommend this food for everyone)

I always threw in some Pellets when feeding them, maybe for you it helps at night when she is more active. They are smart and figure out its edible rather fast, some of mine did instantly, and others took 2-3 weeks.

2. I always kept them with Sand, especially when they were young being able to dig in helps them a lot to calm down and just do things as they are very intelligent. If you can, use natural Sand from a river close by, the different sizes and shapes of the corns are very stimulating for all digging fish and in my opinion also just look better. And you don't need to shift the sand to clean it, the ray will do that for you, you just need a strong filter that can handle it. Maybe put a plate below the entrance to not have that much sand being sucked into it.

3. Just give her time. If she eats during the day you can enjoy seeing it, but apart from that there isn't much you can do. But most not wild caught will become active during the day aswell, with her due to traume it just might take longer.

4. Babys, especially pure ones, usually start out gred brown. Unlike most fish the pattern and colours are independent of your tank, just wait and see.

I hope this helps

 

[ODST_Kona]

Hey, I really appreciate your response! I should’ve updated this post earlier, but I wanted to figure a few things out first. She’s completely healed now all the cuts are gone, and I’m honestly surprised she doesn’t even have a scar.

Right now she’s alone in a 125gallon, but once she grows a little more I’ll move her to my Intex pond with the arowana and datnoids. She’s about 4 inches wide at the moment.

I also did some testing with my heater setup and found out the issue was my own negligence. I had two 200W heaters in the tank and assumed both were working turns out I was wrong. The side where she liked to hide was sitting at 79F because that heater worked, but the other side of the tank (where the other heater wasn’t turning on) was only 73-75F.

 

[ODST_Kona]

Hello,
I can help you with your questions, but for some, I need to ask some questions aswell to give better answers. Mainly what size is she, your tank and how does it look overall. Maybe you can post some pictures aswell, they always help to say more.

1. The most important thing you need to transition them is pellets they like and patience. For me, I got all my rays to transiton with the "Sera Granured Nature" (aswell as all my wild caught eartheaters, Cichla and way more, I can only recommend this food for everyone)

I always threw in some Pellets when feeding them, maybe for you it helps at night when she is more active. They are smart and figure out its edible rather fast, some of mine did instantly, and others took 2-3 weeks.

2. I always kept them with Sand, especially when they were young being able to dig in helps them a lot to calm down and just do things as they are very intelligent. If you can, use natural Sand from a river close by, the different sizes and shapes of the corns are very stimulating for all digging fish and in my opinion also just look better. And you don't need to shift the sand to clean it, the ray will do that for you, you just need a strong filter that can handle it. Maybe put a plate below the entrance to not have that much sand being sucked into it.

3. Just give her time. If she eats during the day you can enjoy seeing it, but apart from that there isn't much you can do. But most not wild caught will become active during the day aswell, with her due to traume it just might take longer.

4. Babys, especially pure ones, usually start out gred brown. Unlike most fish the pattern and colours are independent of your tank, just wait and see.

I hope this helps

I’ve since switched to a single 500W heater and added more oxygen, and now she’s back out, swimming around, and stirring things up again! It could just be that her wounds are fully healed, but I’d rather blame myself as an inexperienced stingray keeper than assume she magically got better.

I’m going to start mixing in carnivore pellets with her current food and will head back to my LFS to grab the same pellets you recommended.

 

[Ansorgii]

That is great to hear!

Just to be sure, do you have some sort of protection on your heater? Some stringrays like touching them a lot and get burns. Especially when they are this small that can lead to bad wounds.

And overall, if you get the chance, most rays enjoy company, tho she might swim a bit less around with it since they often do that in search of companions. But take your time, its good to learn first before upping the risk.

Another thing I would advice you to have around, just in case, is fine zeolith powder. If anything happens, and you have a spike in nitrite, you can throw it in as a immediate meassure to calm the water down. One such thing, that you sadly have to keep in mind is if a ray dies, which can always happen. I don't know why, bit they decompose/ tip over the water almost instantly, and its good to be able to save the rest in such an event.

 

[ODST_Kona]

That is great to hear!

Just to be sure, do you have some sort of protection on your heater? Some stringrays like touching them a lot and get burns. Especially when they are this small that can lead to bad wounds.

And overall, if you get the chance, most rays enjoy company, tho she might swim a bit less around with it since they often do that in search of companions. But take your time, its good to learn first before upping the risk.

Another thing I would advice you to have around, just in case, is fine zeolith powder. If anything happens, and you have a spike in nitrite, you can throw it in as a immediate meassure to calm the water down. One such thing, that you sadly have to keep in mind is if a ray dies, which can always happen. I don't know why, bit they decompose/ tip over the water almost instantly, and its good to be able to save the rest in such an event.

Hey thanks again for all the help and advice! You were right about the pellets I picked up some Hikari Carnivore Pellets thinking I’d just sprinkle a few before feeding, and she went straight for them! No need for any other food.

On another note, when I stopped by my LFS (where I sell some of my cichlid offspring — still have around 30+ left), I told them how much better she’s been doing. Instead of giving me store credit, the owner surprised me with a male Motoro, about 3 inches wide. They’ve been absolute playmates since day one laying on each other, gliding around together, and super active.

I was a little worried about ammonia spikes, so I pulled an FX4 from one of my cichlid tanks. I’m now running 2 FX6s and 1 FX4 on the 125g. The extra filtration seems to have helped a lot because she’s way more active now down from hiding 4–5 hours a day to maybe 1–2 at most.
I also added a heater with a shield for safety, though I do wish there was a true inline heater option that fits the Fluval FX series.
I was going to show a screenshot of a video where they were next to each other but apparently it wanted to go pixeled lmao

 

[ODST_Kona]

I also forgot to mention my first two replies were supposed to be from Sunday but I guess I never hit send, I also want to say my LFS is a close friend so I know he really hooked me up with this male.

 

[Ansorgii]

I am really happy to hear! And its good if you get them to eat pellets young, so you dont run the risk that can come with onesided diets of frozen food. (God forbid bloodworms).

Both are very social species that enjoy good warm well oxinated water.

Inline heaters have their pros and cons, I enjoy keeping my sistems independant of each other, so if one fails the other can keep running. For most of my tanks I like to keep the heater in an open pipe with an airstone at the bottom, so its protected but has good flow around it.

I hope they and you will stay happy and if you have any more questions feel free to hit me up!