how many motoros?

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BenMottershead

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 16, 2015
9
2
3
manchester uk
hello everyone, this is my first post so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Ben and I am the manager of a large aquatic store and have been a hobbyist for over 10 years. I would consider myself a experienced aquarist however "monster fishkeeping" is one area of the hobby I know very little about so any advice will be greatly appreciated.

the reason for my post is because I want stingrays, probably motoros. The tank I have for them is currently empty as I am having to re seal it along the fiberglass base. Once it is fixed in the new year it will be filled again and ready to go!

the tank itself measures 10' long, 5' wide and 3' tall which I believe makes it about 4000L

the pump sits underneath the tank (along with the rest of the filtration) and draws water from the tank via 2 inlets in the base into a swimming pool bead filter. This then travels through a 2000w inline heater and then through 200 wats of uv sterilisation before it is returned to the tank. All this equipment is hard plumbed in place.

water changes are a piece of cake on this tank. It is plumbed into the waste water supply so you open a valve, set the filter to backwash and turn the pump on and away you go. It then tops itself up with a ball cock much like that in a toilet. This means I can do water changes daily if need be and it will take minutes to do so.

how many rays would be suitable for this tank? Also what do you guys think would make good tank mates? This tank is in the shop so needs to look amazing with interesting, active and eye catching fish. Not only interesting to fish keepers but also to novices to attract them to the hobby.

the tank has already been used to house a large group of discus and before that we had a red tail catfish, 3 pacus, a giant gourami, a tiger shovelnose and a peruno so ideally I want to avoid these as I would like something different (all these monsters are now enjoying their new home at a public aquarium).

I would love to hear your suggestions and advice!

thanks, Ben.
 
Are you keeping the filter cycled? That is my first question. I think you could keep 4 to 6 easy in this tank. That is only my opinion tho some more experienced ray keepers will chim in I'm sure
 
Most people like to breed so keeping an odd number is best. for every 1 male 2 females. for ever 2 males 3-4 females. max i would say is 5-6 especially for motoros. good luck with the new set up
 
thanks for the reply's. It would be great if they could breed. This way we can rear the pups then sell them. As for keeping the filter cycled no we are not however we have access to large amounts of very mature media from systems with a very heavy bioload elsewhere in the shop so this isn't really an issue.

it would be great if we could have 2 males and 4 females if you consider this tank to be big enough.

we may also have access to some leopoldi from a sister shop instead of importing motoros. Would a similar number and m:f ratio work with these?
 
I keep peaceful cichlids with my rays no problem. Severum, red head geo, chocolates, mesonauta, and an indo dat. People have had a lot of success with many species, I would suggest going with something popular with your demographic. Even if you scaped a tank and heavily planted it you could probably pull off livebearers, for a while lol. If you just want bigger active fish you could look at an arowana, silver dollars, or more rays.

Motoros can get pretty big which might want to make you shy away from expensive discus. I would start with 1m 2f or 2m and 4f, just because I would want to leave the option of adding different rays. I'm guessing if your the guy who manages and babies this tank you will probably get the ray bug, so you will want to collect different kinds like most of us here.
 
yea i can see that happening lol! I like the idea of chocolate cichlids and I like Papua New Ginnie dats. Mixing different rays sounds cool too. The motoro idea came mostly to keep costs down but I think I could blag some leopoldi and henlei off a sister shop that has them regularly breeding in a display. If I can manage to get them for free or cost price I suppose it would be rude not to...
 
Looks great
I'd do 2 males and 3 females long term. Of cource, since you own a store, you could buy more and sell them as they out grow the tank and keep the nicest. Thats what i do when i breed cichlids and If I could afford it, i'd do it with rays. Mix it up and try different species, there are tons of options!
 
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