Sting Ray Help

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Z

zigis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2009
52
0
6
Michigan
I am working on setting up a 180 6x2x2 and realy want a couple sting rays can anyone here direct me to wich breed is best. I have heard it all from they are all easy to they never live more than a week. I just would like to hear from someone with experence.( Breed/ feeding) The tank has 120lbs black sand two FX5s and a 405 with surface skimmer filtering it.
Any Help Would be Great.
 
for that size tank u could go with reticulata rays or hystrix. retics are a little more finicky eaters but they will definately eat blackworms. all rays are sensitive to water quality so water changes of at least 50% are a must. i think poor water quality is the reason most rays die.

i have had my 2 retics for 2 weeks. they are doing fine eating blackworms twice a day.
 
go for the retics (teacups), find a reliable source of live blackworms as you'll need them in the beginning. invest in some prazipro to treat for internal parasites, and keep the water clean and you'll be good to go. eventualy they'll ween onto other foods like nightcrawlers,krill, shrimp, silversides, maybe even pellets (mine will eat shrimp pellets)
 
Retics are probably the most delicate and hard to maintain stingrays, simply because they are all wild caught, and they are not usually in great condition when they come in. If the ray appears in good condition and is eating well, then it will probably do ok.

Another question is what will the tankmates be, if any? that can have a big impact on whether or not to get rays.

Probably the hardiest ray will be a motoro, which can be found captive bred and fairly inexpensively. They cannot live their whole life in a 6x2x2, however. You would need to upgrade to something at least 30"-36" wide for the future.

Check in the stingray forum (under bottomdwellers) to get more feedback specific to stingrays.
 
Sounds great thanks for the help. The tank will also have a 6" poly palmas bircher and a 6"Hybrid shovel nose cat and a 4" fat grunden( not sure on is name)
 
Sounds like you have bottom feeders which newly acclimated rays will have to compet with for food. In all honesty even though you have a large tank it is just not big enough to keep rays. Retics or true histrix could work. I wouldnt recommend either of these rays for your first ray. Motoros are a hardy ray but will outgerow you tank. Even a "more hardy" ray is still more sensitive then most fish. The produce and huge amount of waste. They require huge turnover rates 10x, large bio-load and perfect water conditions with plenty of food. good luck.
 
Honestly it depends on the size of the rays when you first get them, and whether or not you can upgrade to a larger tank if necessary in the future. If you started with 6-8" motoro's, that 6x2x2 tank would probably last you a good 2 years before you needed to upgrade to a larger tank. However, you WOULD have to upgrade at some point, as the 2 foot width would not accommodate them for longer than a couple years.

There's no point starting with a huge tank (8x3 or something like that) if you are starting with small rays. They get lost in that space and can have trouble finding food.
 
zigis;3871448; said:
Sounds great thanks for the help. The tank will also have a 6" poly palmas bircher and a 6"Hybrid shovel nose cat and a 4" fat grunden( not sure on is name)
Click to expand...

depending what type of hybrid (say tsnxrtc) it'd prly be in you and the fish's best interest to forget that shovelnose
 
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