Stingrays and MBU-puffer

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E

eriken

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 3, 2010
54
1
6
Oslo, Norway
I keep an MBU-puffer in my stingray tank. It has been there for about three months without any problems. Now it’s about 10 inches. I just love the puffer, as I love my rays and I really enjoy how they seem to get along so well. At feeding time my big leo-male sometimes jump on top of the puffer. But he does not hurt the puffer, and the puffer doesn’t seem to mind, going on with his business.

I’m afraid that the puffer one day will turn on one of the rays. Is it a big risk? Do any of you have any experience with well behaved puffers suddenly turning on a ray?

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I had a Fahaka that I kept with my rays. Went well for a long time then one day it got hungry and bit a chuck out of the ray. No huge deal, puffer was removed and ray disc regenerated. Still risky thou, it could have easily been the rays eyes or tail that got bitten off.

Just keep both animals very well fed.....
 
Hate to say this but move that mbu . i
t only takes one of the rays to be buried in the sand and the mbu sees the eye and thinks snail! i have seen this happen to a ray after the lfs i used to work at had advised a customer not to keep them together.
The mbu in question was a really peacefull one like yours and did not bite the ray out of agression. needless to say the eye got bitten off in one.

mbu's are great pets but your marbles are so special , it is not worth the risk
 
Thank you very much for advice and compliments. AFAIK fakas are more aggressive than MBU, but I guess the MBU could do more damage. And as you say, it might not bite out of aggression, but because of hunger or mistake. My rays rarely bury only leaving the eyes visible, but the MBU could easily do other mistakes, especially during feeding. It is very eager when it comes to food. One time it bit me in the finger, and although it didn’t draw any blood, it was a hard pinch.

I guess I will be planning for a new tank and new companions for the puffer.
 
I would say move it; puffers are notoriously bad tankmates (especially in small systems with a limited food supply.) With another large competitor for food (i.e. the stingray), especially one that isn't very likely to kill the puffer first, the situation could get very ugly. I've never seen a biotope system with ample hiding places and a variance of smaller species to add more links in the chain between the puffer and the ray.

I wouldn't put a puffer with anything it can kill; a biotope with a robust food chain might mitigate the risks, but I would never risk something like that with a ray.

Note: I've got a puffer in a tank with a ray currently, but there is a divider between the two. It is a Fahaka (and an incredibly aggressive one at that), but I would have done the same with an Mbu.
 
Move it ! Had 30in peaceful mbu raised with mates from day 1
he started biting rays. Not from aggression. Actually not sure why
anyway those chunks that grow back on the rays. They don't
grow back with the same patteren
it's not worth it man
 
the worst thing the puffer could do is take out the rays eyes, in saltwater i've read there are several fish you shouldn't keep with rays because of that, puffers were one of them.
 
Your rays are so beautiful I could cry.

You would be the one crying if anything were to happend to them, though. Good call moving the MBU out.
 
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