Has anyone had any luck keeping small tankmates with larger rays? One of my females is an active hunter and will take out medium size fish but I'm wondering if she might ignore smaller fish. Anyone have any experience with this?
Small tankmates with rays?
- Thread starter KNH
- Start date
To keep smaller fish with rays it's all about feeding habits. I have a 32" female castexi who has never attacked a fish even at 1.5", but when she got pregnant and I didn't notice she was not fed the proper amount and would attack a 14" fish. I believe if you get a ray used to certain foods and they are available they will not attack other fish.
I do think most people mistake well fed with overfed. With rays it takes a long time to actually figure out there eating habits.
I've tried numerous schooling fish, and they worked great...as evening appetizers, till the last one got eaten 
We'd just put a new big school in for display after the last group was gone, but I've tried several; hatchets, cardinals, columbians, congos, different rasboras,etc. All gone. (my discus breeding pair and larger black ghost knife were eaten eventually, too). It's too bad though - they all looked amazing for a short amount of time!
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We'd just put a new big school in for display after the last group was gone, but I've tried several; hatchets, cardinals, columbians, congos, different rasboras,etc. All gone. (my discus breeding pair and larger black ghost knife were eaten eventually, too). It's too bad though - they all looked amazing for a short amount of time!Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Skynoch, please post up a recent pic of the big ray as I think many people starting out still think they stay below 12 inches. I would love to see it anyway.
I've kept tetras with my rays (hystrix) for quite awhile. I started with 8 black skirt tetras and 8 redfin blue Columbian tetras 3+ years ago. I currently have 2 blacks skirts and 3 blues left. It seems the not-so-smart tetras were eliminated soon after adding them to the tank. One more would disappear from time to time.