Question about female aggressiveness.

[anubeast]

All stingrays I have
- 1 big male size 18 inches.
- 1 big female size 23 inches.
- 1 middle male size 14 inches.
- 3 middle females size 16-17 inches.

They all living together in the big pond, last few months I noticed that 3 middle females develop aggressive behavior. All three of them sometimes charging the 2 big stingrays and each others but no injuries. I never seen female stingray aggressive like this before. Anyone ever have same experienced like me before? For me, I think reason may concern about not enough food ? Coz I feeding all of them with frozen shrimp around 0.75 kg. per day. Is the amount I gave food to all of them enough? Or other idea to explain this behavior?

Thank in advance for answer.

 

[Raymann88]

I find my rays show more aggression when I miss a feeding or feed too lightly. They will "top" each other more and bite - same aggression they show at feeding time when they are trying to get the other ray to give up some food. Do you feed once or twice a day? Mine show less aggression when fed twice a day as they have some food in their bellies all the time.

Also, I find I have less aggression in my tank with substrate vs bare bottom. In the substrate tank, the rays spend their time sifting through the sand searching for food instead of picking on each other.Rays are more like scavengers in the wild always looking for and finding food.

 

[calgaryflames]

Your females probably pregnant

 

[anubeast]

I find my rays show more aggression when I miss a feeding or feed too lightly. They will "top" each other more and bite - same aggression they show at feeding time when they are trying to get the other ray to give up some food. Do you feed once or twice a day? Mine show less aggression when fed twice a day as they have some food in their bellies all the time.

Also, I find I have less aggression in my tank with substrate vs bare bottom. In the substrate tank, the rays spend their time sifting through the sand searching for food instead of picking on each other.Rays are more like scavengers in the wild always looking for and finding food.

I fed them in the morning 0.5 kilo and in the evening 0.25 kilo. Still don't sure whether it enough or not? Coz sometimes they ate all of it within 5-10 min. but sometimes they left some of shrimp too, reason may be my water quality not stable. Now planning of adding huge protein skimmer for helping.

 

[anubeast]

Your females probably pregnant

That also one of my positive idea , so pregnant female also have aggressive behavior too?
Coz I can't noticed that they pregnant, but may be because all of them age around nearly 3 years and may be first pregnant.

 

[anubeast]

anymore idea?

 

[T1KARMANN]

The females rule my tank and are much more aggressive that the males

When I enter the room to feed the females have a mid water cat fight which look like its a male and female breeding

Females have more size and power


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Just Toby]

I fed them in the morning 0.5 kilo and in the evening 0.25 kilo. Still don't sure whether it enough or not? Coz sometimes they ate all of it within 5-10 min. but sometimes they left some of shrimp too, reason may be my water quality not stable. Now planning of adding huge protein skimmer for helping.

Protein skimmers in freshwater are possible but you need huge air power and they have a habit of lifting too much water and emptying the tank. This is due to the much larger bubbles in fresh water. I do not think this is a workable solution.

What water quality issues do you have as most ray issues are solved with big bio, decent turnover and understanding of the cycle. (plus weekly water changes) the only problem you should be having is nitrate and this should be diluted with the water changes. A drip and growing pothos plants on top help a lot.

Let us know the size of tank and filtration used along with water change schedule and I bet we can spot the weak link.

 

[anubeast]

Protein skimmers in freshwater are possible but you need huge air power and they have a habit of lifting too much water and emptying the tank. This is due to the much larger bubbles in fresh water. I do not think this is a workable solution.

What water quality issues do you have as most ray issues are solved with big bio, decent turnover and understanding of the cycle. (plus weekly water changes) the only problem you should be having is nitrate and this should be diluted with the water changes. A drip and growing pothos plants on top help a lot.

Let us know the size of tank and filtration used along with water change schedule and I bet we can spot the weak link.

Pond divide in to two part. First part for stingray size around 163*88*30 inches(water around 7 tons). Second part for filteration size around 25*88*30 inches(water around 1 ton). Below are video, you can see that water will go in filter part 1 through green net and water will go down passing green rough filter mat( first layer), black fine filter mat( second layer), coral for ph buffer (third layer). Then water will go up through pumice stone in the net and go down again in the last filter part. In the last filter part, water will spinning hundred of bio-ball (I think by myself that this part may consider as moving bed media) and the pump will shoot water into the stingray pond again. Pump I use Atman HU-35 that spec 35000 liters per hour.

[video=youtube;6GU5k798Tzs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GU5k798Tzs&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Is my filter effective enough?
Welcome all suggestion .

 

[Tor-Eriik]

That seems like a crazy big filter, and plenty for the setup. I dont see any flaws with the filter. Nice collection tho How much water do you change ? a large volume is good, but at some point the nitrat will work its way if not changing water, all this you know tho!