Ray Newbie, a Few questions

[Bderick67]

I have been considering getting a ray. From reading the stickys it looks as if a Motoro or Leopoldi, would be best to start with.

How fast do rays grow, at what size would it need to be moved from a 180g to a larger tank?

Feeding, would live earthworms, frozen bloodworms and cichlid fry, be an adequate diet? What about frozen market shrimp?

Tankmates, eventual stock I would be hoping to house with the ray would be; Silver and black aros, tire track eel, red bay snooks, elipse catfish. What is realistically gonna be eaten by what size ray.

I think I am understanding of filtration and water perams that ray's require and I am going to look into the "Fresh Water Stringrays" book mentioned in the sticky. Is there any other info that I should know before making a desion on becoming a Ray keeper?

Thanks

 

[Nic]

I would say 16" would be max for it in the 180... diet wise I feed mine shrimps and pellets working on smelts now... I don't feed earthworms anymore since I had to battle a parasite problem from them.... keep your water pristine and I'm not sure about the eels or the catfish but the aros are fine tankmates

 

[Bderick67]

Thanks for the reply Nic.

One other question, when considering the size of the ray, generally is the stated measurment just the disc or the disc including the tail?

 

[Bderick67]

5 hours and only one reply

Well I guess this means I won't get a ray

 

[LiuHsi]

when talking about ray, the size generally refers to the disc only

 

[rallysman]

If you find a Retic. in the LFS that is chowing on "dead" food, get it
Don't be afraid of retics. They're not as difficult as the others say IME. If you can, get a male. They seem to grow slower and stay a bit smaller. Mine is just as cool as my motoro variant. His tail is so long it just seems to follow him forever.

That said, the best starter is probably a motoro, even though you'll have to upgrade from a 180 eventually.

 

[cichlid savage]

It is best to keep rays as a single species

Why is this?

 

[Bderick67]

The upgrade would not be a problem since I'll have the 350g (6' x 4' x 2'). I am more concerned if the ray will work with the red bay snooks and eclipse catfish.

 

[Bderick67]

How about live plants? Do rays destroy the plants?

 

[T1KARMANN]

How about live plants? Do rays destroy the plants?

plants wont last 2mins in a ray tank

i have never had the need to use earth worms frozen peeled prawn and mussel is what i fed for years and the odd cube of frozen blood worm for the rays to graze on with no problems but i never had as good results as im having now since my rays main food is pellets they still eat prawn mussel and blood worm but pellets are their fav