Setting up a Ray Tank

[bebbo]

Hello All, i just joined today after being informed about this site by thinkfish.co.uk

Just want to ask you all for ideas on how best to do this

I'm getting a tank that will be 80"x30"x30" or 2mx0.75mx0.75m and am intending of keeping two motoro's in there, in hopes of breeding them, as my LFS charges £80 per fish, and if successful this would be a nice side line. (though this is not the main reason for the tank, i need a new fish challenge and love the thought of having rays).

the tank will be 1200 litres / 317 Gal roughly

I was thinking about using an Fluval FX5 on it as i have used this on my other tank and it works well. Some people have said it would be good to use this as well as a sump tank?

As for heating i haven't got a clue how is best to heat a tank of this size, i'm guessing the stand 400w heaters aren't powerful enough as they say watts is equal to litre size of tank. I was also thinking about substrate heating? any ideas?

As for substrate i was going to use a fine sand but i have read that too finer sand is bad for the rays. The sand i currently have in one tank is meant to be amazon sand, same sort of consistency as beach sand. Again any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any input

Joe

 

[Fish on Fire]

Welcome to the forums, and I'm pretty much useless when it comes to rays as I have no experience with them, lol. I'm sure that others will be able to help you out. Have you thought of putting a heater in the sump, which is the type of filtration that I would recommend, as well as one in the tank?

 

[T1KARMANN]

Hi

i also live in the UK and their is no profit in breeding motoro the shop sells them for £80 each and that is about the best price you will get for motoro pups

you will be able to breed the motoro in the tank size you stated but its not big enought for adult motoro who will need a tank that is 8ft x 4ft

the size the motoro will get to in a size tank you stated will be 16inch disk at this size you will be lucky to get 3 x pups every 3-4 months

full grown adult motoro can grow to 30inch disk without the tail

the other problem you will have is male motoro are very aggressive when it comes to breeding and you have a high chance of the male killing the female if you donnt seperate them when things start to get nasty

you will be able to keep the motoro in the tank size stated for a max of 18 months 2yrs and buy the time you take into consideration the massive food bill and the amount of water changes you will need to do their is no profit in motoro pups

 

[bebbo]

Its not profit i'm interested in, just bringing them to other people (or covering the food bill). That said what you have told me hear is completely different to what my shop told me.

I have been told that the Motoro in captivity don't get much bigger than a dinner plate 15" and that a minimum tank size would be 6' x 2' x 2'. So are you saying my tank stated wouldn't be big enough?

What are your thoughts on filtration and heating?

 

[T1KARMANN]

a male motoro will stay smaller than a female and may reach a max size of 18inch disk but females get much bigger

the shop is wrong to tell you a 6 x 2 x 2 is big enought its much to small if you only want to keep the rays for 18 month - 2yrs then you may get away with a tank that size but what you need to take into account is when the rays get to big for a 6x2x2 they will be very hard to sell as this is the size tank that most people class as big and not many people have a tank bigger than 6x2x2

as for filteration what ever you think will be enought then double it

im not trying to put you off rays they are great fun to keep just take into consideration they will need a very big tank at some point

 

[carolines100]

Fluval fx5 and a good size sump my 200 gal turns over 8 times a hour i have two 8 inch motoros . i will be doing a upgrade in 6 months to a 500 gal and i will still aim for a 8 times a hour turn over and 50% water change ever week. Do lots of research go to the stingray section here and look through the stickys u will learn lots of stuff . All the hard work a side, rays are great to keep and fun to watch. Good look with them if you to decide to go ahead and any probs post in stingray section and people they are very helpful as i have learned the past and present