I have some questions!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Badidea04

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 22, 2010
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Michigan
I have a 90 gallon fish tank with nothing in it. I had some cichlids in it before but i gave them away. I have always thought about getting sting rays. I would like to know basically everything about them. I have sand substrate already. I want to know from people with experience with them. Not off of some web site. Basically the basics, how many i can have, and all that jazz thank you!!


Jake
 
Hey all the sticky's are from people with experience, read through them ALL. I did this when i first got into them. And then if there's still any unanswered questions, ask away! But the sticky's have a lot of good info in them. I know teacups get really long tails but i think u could have 1 of them in a 90.
 
Yup you will need a minimum of a 24 inch wide tank within 1 year if you have a male ray. Even then you would have to upgrade to at least a 36 inch wide tank eventually

The females get a Lot bigger

That being said it is worth it, go get a huge tank ;)
 
I'm no expert but here's some info I've pieced together. Retics are cheap and more available but are very fragile and are poorly treated. They normally don't live too long due to neglect. They are hard to train to eat other foods. If they do survive and live long term they have long tails. I'm not real sure on max adult size because rarely do they live that long, but they do take a while to reach sexual maturity (3 or so yrs). At this size they are 12"plus. Motoros are prob your best bet. Same as retics, males stay smaller than females. Best to have at least a 6x2 tank to start and be willing to upgrade as the ray grows. Always see the ray eat before you buy it. Make sure you have plenty of filtration as rays produce lots of waste.
 
I would agree with most everything being said.....however I disagree with the above poster a bit, retic's really arn't that fragile you just can't treat them like crap. My female is over 3 years old and is on her second litter of pups, she is roughly 13 or so inches and eats everything in sight! Now both of my mature rays both retic's have very short tails...they both broke them during there transit from the wild and they don't regrow tails. But my one little pup already has a pretty long tail but she was born in the tank and really hasn't had to go through much moving. She came out a super good eater and she is a tough little booger and only around 2.5 inches at birth. I would go retic or true hystrix in a 90 but even then with the waste they produce you will be doing some mad water changes and should still upgrade when they get bigger. I had 3 retic's in a 125 for 2.5 years with a ton of other fish, but I was religious on my water changes 30% 2x a week with really good filtration. If you are seriousl about getting into rays with a 90 gal I would say only 1 and even though a retic is cheap they will cost you a ton in food well all rays will cost you a ton in food they are PIGS! Please read all of the stickies as they are a wealth of information that is where I started 3 years ago. Good luck and let us all know if you get one.
 
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