Stingrays in Canada?

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Rob Martin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 30, 2009
49
0
6
Ontario, Canada
Hey guys,

Well, I had a REALLY slow day at work today and spent literally hours reading through the old threads here in the Stingray section on MFK. A lot of good reads here.... You guys are lucky to have so many knowledgable ray keepers posting in one place!

Anyway, during my travels through the threads I was keeping an eye out for places in Canada, preferably within Ontario, where one could reliably purchase a healthy ray. I'd rather go to a good store that stocks them than order one in if I can (hoping to avoid an emaciated import by buying sight unseen I guess).

In one thread an LFS called "Lucky Aquarium" was mentioned that is located in Markham, so I may take a drive and check them out one day. I was just wondering if anybody here knew of any other places within Ontario where I might pick up a healthy stingray or two?

I can get them locally (actually I did own a Motoro in the past that lived with a few discus) but the prices are so high where I'm at (paid $350 for that motoro) that I thought with a day of driving I could get a much better deal, especially if I decide on getting two.
 
Thanks, Gshock. The nearest Big Al's to me is about 3 to 3.5 hours away (I'm up in Northern Ontario). I was actually there at that Big Al's last weekend and the only ray they had was saltwater.

I've since gone online and found a few more Big Al's locations in Southern Ontario and I've programmed all the addresses into my GPS so I may just take a drive one day for a few hours and do a "Big Al's Tour" sorta speak...

What concerns me though is the chance that when I drive down none of them have any motoros at the time, or they do but it's too skinny or something...

Basically I was hoping to see if anybody on here knew of a place that seems to regularly have rays on hand so that there was a good chance that if I took the day to drive down I might have more than one to choose from.

I suppose I could always make phone calls ahead of time to see if the Big Al's locations have any in stock, but with my luck they'd have like a single one and so I'd drive down to take a look only to discover after my 3 or 4 hour car ride that they'd sold it while I was on my way down or something! LOL!

Anybody know the average cost of Motoros down in Southern Ontario? Like I said, I can order one up here but it will run me in the neighbourhood of $350 and I'm darn near positive they can be had cheaper than that. On Lucky Aquarium's site I saw they sell them for $99.00!!!! Man, did I feel so ripped off by my LFS after seeing that.....
 
Rob Martin;4322861; said:
I suppose I could always make phone calls ahead of time to see if the Big Al's locations have any in stock, but with my luck they'd have like a single one and so I'd drive down to take a look only to discover after my 3 or 4 hour car ride that they'd sold it while I was on my way up or something! LOL! QUOTE]

Do exactly that. Call ahead. I'm sure Big Al's will email you pictures if you want. Don't do a bunch of driving for no reason. Another thing you can do is have them bring one in specifically for you... They will probably even keep it for a few weeks to make sure it is healthy. I know my LFS here in Winnipeg would do it for me. Just my opinion.
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If I could get them to keep it for a few weeks to make sure it would be feeding and in good health, I would certainly go for that. I can't see a store doing that for somebody who wasn't a long time regular there though....

My concern, as mentioned, with ordering one in is since I'm an "unknown" customer to them, they'll likely want payment up front. Then, when I drove down to pickup the ray(s) if I'm unsatisfied with their body condition I need to get in an argument over it which I'd like to avoid.

I don't know... maybe I should just order one in. I ordered that first Motoro I had in with the discus a few years back and it was chunky and healthy.... Then again, I paid way too much for it so it sure as heck better be in good shape! lol. My local guy would certainly keep it for me for awhile to insure health, but I'm trying not to buy one ray for the cost of three this time around....
 
Im not too sure on other stores, but if you can make the trip down the BA on Kennedy, you won't be disappointed. I've personally purchased a couple of my own rays from them and the majority of the time, they're ray stock is pretty healthy. Would be a good idea to call ahead first though as you wouldn't want to waste a day heading down here for nothing, although they usually have a load of em come in every shipment. You can forget about the email thing as the email for Kennedy location doesn't even work anymore after they changed managers. Another thing you should know is they probably wont hold fish for anyone more than a couple days. They dont like to take down payments and the most I've ever gotten from them was 3 days.
 
Is the "Kennedy location" the one in Brampton?

So you think that when I'm ready if I called the day before and asked them to hold one or two for me until the next afternoon they would?

What do the Motoros there go for?
 
http://belowwaterfish.blogspot.com/

send this guy an email to get his availability list
he will send a new list when he gets new stuff in
I believe he has marbled motoros and retics in right now
his name is Oliver Lucanus and the email is
fish@belowwater.com
hes in montreal
 
Oliver lucanus might be a good go. He will answer all your questions threw e-mail. Big Als on kennedy will probily hold rays for you if they know your coming. I have seen alot of skinny rays there but i also have seen a few healthy ones there also. They have ranged from $120 to $150 for a little bigger motoros.
 
Rob Martin;4324255; said:
Is the "Kennedy location" the one in Brampton?

So you think that when I'm ready if I called the day before and asked them to hold one or two for me until the next afternoon they would?

What do the Motoros there go for?
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Kennedy location is the one in scarborough. Slimmer's got everything else covered.
 
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