is this tank big enough?
- Thread starter teguc1
- Start date
hollywood69;813310; said:
I wish you would quit giving people bad stingray advice and mis-identifying species. Everytime you post, I shake my head.
Motoros get 18" plus, male or female, not including tail. It varies with each individual ray. With a tank only 24" wide, you are very limited for species choices.
Your only choices would be Scobina, Hystrix, or Retic.. Retic is the only one commonly available right now because of the ban from Brazil.
"Teacup" is a generic term, and usually results in a parasite riddled ray with poor care and import quality. If people are calling them 'Teacups' it shows lack of knowledge and they are just regurgitating information from the wholesaler list, and probably don't know much about rays.
$150 for a Motoro sounds right, but only if its healthy. Make sure its treated for internal parasites, and ask for it to be fed in front of you. If it shows its hip or a dent on it's head, it sickly and will likely die. Most importers/wholesalers look at Rays as a cash cow, and don't know much about their care or proper acclimation to home aquaria.
Although you have 220g of water volume to work with, the 30" of height isn't as important as the 24" of depth. The bio-load of stingrays is immense, and you should be prepared to be doing atleast 50% water changes weekly, if not more.. It depends on how many rays you have. If you try to keep 3 motoros, expect 60%+ 2 or 3 times a week, especially as they grow. You could probably slack for a while, but eventually nitrates, ammonia or DOCs will stress the ray and kill it. They need pristine conditions and LOTs of space. Having a 20" ray in a 24" tank and having it graze its tail with every turn about, is not good.. It causes acute stress (small amount over long time) and will eventually kill the ray. Please, stick to the smaller appropriate species and don't attempt to buy juvenile rays and 'upgrade later' or 'hope they dont get too big'.. because, they will get big, and they will die.
Research, Research, Research.. and don't listen to Hollywood.
whatever, you do what you want to do, but if i were you id get 3 motoros! 220 is a big tank and i love how everyone thinks size this and size that, especially a person that sales rays, no matter what tank we provide these stingrays, IT'S NOT THE AMAZON RIVER, so if your gonna tankjail them then do what you want. i'd hate for you to buy 2 rays and later be like, **** this is a big asss tank i could have bought 1 more!
What people should also say is welcome to the world of rays. I'm glad to hear of more people keeping them, maybe we can get more people breeding them and stop bying the wild caught ones. Rays are very rewarding, and i love keeping them, i'm sure you and your family will. Make sure you know what your getting into, but they rock. The people we need to really work on is the pet stores who bring these rays in over and over again only to price them to high so no one can afford them, only to have them die in 20 gallon tanks. A pet store here in my city has been charging $299 for a 6" motoro i've asked the young kids how many they sell, one kid said one out of three but all the customers come in to watch them. I would of rather seen one or two of them in your 220 living happier. Good luck
I also agree with Hollywood. I agree with having a Tank large enough for our Monster fish, but i Can not afford to buy lake Victoria, or even a small part of the Amazon river. I am also keeping a Green arrowana in a 200 gallon tank and everything i've seen over seas, even in breeding farms 200 gallon is not a bad size, but on here i apperently i need a swimming pool usedin the olympics?
ideally I would get 1 ray, 1 aro, and a bunch of mid level schooling/dither fish. Having kept the big boy cichlids, dovii, jags, umbies, red terrors, flowerhorns, etc, I understand Bio-levels and the importance of water changes. I really appreciate all the info, that is why I am here on this site. My one real concern is that none of the LFS in my area routinely have rays, and the one that I always buy cichlids from will not order a ray unless I pre-pay and will not refund me if it dies quickly and they will not quaratine the fish or anything like that. I need to get in touch with a reputable seller. Any ideas?
TFDFish has Retics for $25, which 3 of those might be appropriate for that tank size. Just be careful.. rays that are shipped and QT get stressed easy, and that is the hardest part of acclimation.. TFD claims to QT the fish for parasites for you, but have also heard a few other people complain about DOAs with them.. So it's a toss up..
You might also try StingrayGuy, he usually imports a variety of nice rays.. But Reticulata is the species you want, or Motoro.. but I still think Motoros need atleast a 30" wide tank longterm..
You might also try StingrayGuy, he usually imports a variety of nice rays.. But Reticulata is the species you want, or Motoro.. but I still think Motoros need atleast a 30" wide tank longterm..
