Mbu and stingrays???

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kevinfleming21 said:
I have seen stunted fahaka's showing up more also, not by the owners, just not growing. Well if he is years old, then you are the owner of a mini Mbu for whatever reason. :)
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Well, I'd assume that most start off with a healthy fish that's at least a few inches. These things were sickly caved in lil guys that were so small there was no way to tell if they were even MBU for sure. I was only able to save 3 out of 4. They were on bloodworms for a long time as they flat out refused everything else for the first few months. They didn't even start growing till the dents popped out after several months. They had a very rough start.

I'm sure I could power feed the thing and try to get it huge fast, but I'm in no hurry for it to outgrow it's current 6x3 and end up in with the Wolves and Dorado. Seems content with the peaceful Odoe for now.

I suppose I could measure it in typical fish keeper exaggerated fashion and call it 10-11". :)

Maybe I'm experiencing slow growth rates cause of the ridiculously hard water here that everyone tells me "your fish will adjust to"????
 
DB junkie said:
Well, I'd assume that most start off with a healthy fish that's at least a few inches. These things were sickly caved in lil guys that were so small there was no way to tell if they were even MBU for sure. I was only able to save 3 out of 4. They were on bloodworms for a long time as they flat out refused everything else for the first few months. They didn't even start growing till the dents popped out after several months. They had a very rough start.

I'm sure I could power feed the thing and try to get it huge fast, but I'm in no hurry for it to outgrow it's current 6x3 and end up in with the Wolves and Dorado. Seems content with the peaceful Odoe for now.

I suppose I could measure it in typical fish keeper exaggerated fashion and call it 10-11". :)

Maybe I'm experiencing slow growth rates cause of the ridiculously hard water here that everyone tells me "your fish will adjust to"????
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I don't think hard water is the issue. My water is hard as a rock, even though I have an R.O. system. Also my Ph is really high was well. Maybe the slow rate of growth stems from the condition they were in at such a small age? It seems plausible that it might have. As long as he is happy, who cares if he is not gaint. I think it's cool yours is able to have tankmates. Mine is only a year old and still quite the pistol. He does have a single tankmate that he does not bother though. To the OP, real answer is you won't know till you try honestly. Just have a backup plan.
 
Doubtful, in my opinion, that water hardness has any impact on the growth of an Mbu. Remember that they occurr in Lake Tanganyika. Our water is extremely hard here in Central TX (limestone-based aquifer) and my Mbu grew like a weed.

Like everyone else is telling you, I think it will end badly for a stingray if you put any big puffer in there with one. But on the other hand, I also feel like many people just shop around forums like these until they get the answer they want to hear and then do what they planned to do, anyway.

Just my 2-cents and best of luck, whatever you decide to do.
 
Jenerik said:
Doubtful, in my opinion, that water hardness has any impact on the growth of an Mbu. Remember that they occurr in Lake Tanganyika. Our water is extremely hard here in Central TX (limestone-based aquifer) and my Mbu grew like a weed.

Like everyone else is telling you, I think it will end badly for a stingray if you put any big puffer in there with one. But on the other hand, I also feel like many people just shop around forums like these until they get the answer they want to hear and then do what they planned to do, anyway.

Just my 2-cents and best of luck, whatever you decide to do.
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My 2 cents..... Sounds just like the ray forum. Everyone claims they have "hard" water too. But yet when I looked for advice from someone considered an expert in rays and followed his advice, upon receiving microseimen #s he couldn't believe my rays were even able to live in it. Higher then he's ever even heard of rays being kept in. But very few have to numbers to compare, they just assume. Hard water to some people may be soft to others. Definitely helps to be able to compare numbers. Could it be possible to have too hard of water? Maybe not typically, but I definitely wouldn't assume there's no such thing.

Having a puffer you know they're not dumb fish. Why would they get curious of a fish that pounces on them and rolls them around and just decide to bite them? Those fish live together and eat together, the puffer knows it's not food.

I'm not saying it's a great idea and to do it. I'll more then likely eventually move mine, cause even after as long as it's been you still wonder. One of a kind rays aren't replaceable so probably a poor choice on my part.

However do you guys keep dogs? Do you ever think about them turning on you and biting you? It could happen, but most keep them anyways.

When it comes to these combos it seems there's a few that have done it, and seems to work. There's a vast majority that call it a bad idea without ever trying it, and seems there's very few cases of it being tried and it not working out. If there was, I probably wouldn't have tried it, but it seems there's more successful cases then unsuccessful.
 
Looks like the typical argument......

A bunch of puffer "experts" telling people that have mixed rays and puffers together for a year or 2 that they shouldn't be doing it without having ever kept rays. I'm sorry but I don't agree with it, but then again I don't agree with some people's opinion on how big of tank a big MBU needs. This argument is just as controversial as the whole tank size for MBU bit.....

I understand both sides. But also understand that it's not my place to tell someone what's right and wrong. I simply share my experiences, which is what this thread asked for.
 
DB junkie said:
Looks like the typical argument......

A bunch of puffer "experts" telling people that have mixed rays and puffers together for a year or 2 that they shouldn't be doing it without having ever kept rays. I'm sorry but I don't agree with it, but then again I don't agree with some people's opinion on how big of tank a big MBU needs. This argument is just as controversial as the whole tank size for MBU bit.....

I understand both sides. But also understand that it's not my place to tell someone what's right and wrong. I simply share my experiences, which is what this thread asked for.
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DB opininions are like ..... everyone has one!! You like myself are a risk taker and without people like us there will never be advances and different views so kudos and thanks for sharing. i have toyed with the idea of adding a mbu to one of my ray tanks and have filtered through all the info out there and still have not gotten the courage to try it.... like any animal mbus are unpredicatable and are equipped to do damage quickly so if you try it you have to be aware of the risks. That being said there are lots of stories out there of rays eating and or spiking prized fish in community enviroments but there are not nearly as many people going around saying rays can not be kept succesfully with any other fish. puffer people are just more defensive about the subject.


OP. Best answer i can give you, there is risk involved but also documneted cases of success. If you are to try it get a small one so he can not do as much damage before you can intervene. Oh and let us know how it goes!!!
 
DB junkie said:
Hope you have a flame retardant suit, it's going to get hot in here.

I'll start.....

"Your tank's too small"

:ROFL:

:popcorn:
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It amazing on this board thread starters are NOT prepared to use the search function and its amazing also this question does not crop up elsewhere... this appears choreographed.. there appears to be a stingray blindness with respect to the puffer/mbu interaction introduced by people wanting to introduce Mbu to established stringray tanks rather than vica versa.

Mbu's live at least into the teens... so plan on that basis.

Essentially this should be in the stingray thread as it seems that its stingray lead as the principle question...

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"Your tank's too small"

rofl.gif

popcorn.gif

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http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/misc.php?do=showru
 
There can always be a temporary situation but 10 months seems beyond temporary. Its possible to break the rules in the short term or find the exception that proves the rule. (e.g. fahaka's in a 3 foot tank when they are small) 2 years of co-existance is still not a yardstick without explaining the context further. what size tank etc... over-filtration level, uv sterilizer etc... as stated on other threads MBu's like Fahaka's vary widely fish to fish. We had a Mbu with 100+ shoaling neons for 4 years in a fully planted tank then (s)he took them out in 3-4 days... looked great until then.
 
DB junkie said:
Looks like the typical argument......

A bunch of puffer "experts" telling people that have mixed rays and puffers together for a year or 2 that they shouldn't be doing it without having ever kept rays. I'm sorry but I don't agree with it, but then again I don't agree with some people's opinion on how big of tank a big MBU needs. This argument is just as controversial as the whole tank size for MBU bit.....

I understand both sides. But also understand that it's not my place to tell someone what's right and wrong. I simply share my experiences, which is what this thread asked for.
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Looks like you had discussions with PP etc... I don't agree with simplistic tank size arguments but certainly water quality and rate of dilution is important.

You seem advanced on the SA Ray combined with the the African Puffer mixed tank experiment please keep us updated as I am still looking for for long term data on this and given your 2 year project it would be worthwhile documenting the longer term stability for the good of all.
 
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