Hi Titansfever 83,
this species was up until recently sold in the trade as the red reticulata,many people still believe thats all it is,i can tell you from experience that there are significant differences here with this ray.For a start all males imported with a 15 cm disc have "fully"developed claspers,this is not the case with Reticulata,2 the underside of the fish is also heavily patterned round the edges for about 1cm or so,3,and i find this particularly amazing,many specimens have given birth shortly after been imported,these females had a disc size of 20cm!!...no more.Because there are no restrictions in the wild ie (stunting as with captive fish in many cases)i believe that this is in fact a dwarf species,smaller than both Hystrix and Scobina.Now all this sounds very exciting to people that can only provide say a 100 gal tank but let me tell you,never have i ever kept a ray thats harder to feed and raise.Unlike your regular retic which is easy enough to get feeding on various different foods this ray seems reluctant to feed on anything other than small live fish,ive had them nibble on bloodworms and earthworms but thats all,show it a small fish or shrimp and its a completelt different animal.Im not saying its impossible to feed and convert onto other foods , but i do know they are very fussy!
This information is based on many different specimens i personally know about,they are a lovely looking ray but i would never purchace another one unless i had an endless supply of live river shrimp at a very good price!........the prices have also rocketed over the past 12 months as im sure many if not all the differences ive pointed out have been noticed also by the exporters.
In my mind this is a completely different species to Reticulata.
Good luck with what ever you decide to do.
