SW rays

[FlammingWoodChuck]

How big do most SW rays get. I saw one i loved. it was so personal. it would follow my finger around the tank it was in. I am not gana buy that one tho no SW tanks. I am planning on setting up a 10g SW tho to try and get into SW. so any Tips on SW tanks would also be apreciated. How big of a tank would a SW ray need??? The one i saw had a small point on the front of disk and it was all gray

 

[guppy]

There are many types of saltwater rays including electric torpedo rays and manta rays, the smallest sw sting rays I think are round bodied and get at least 18", some like the cowtailed sting ray get well over 7'.

 

[lizardfishman]

for a ten ga. tank just add salt to the water and buy some small fish after it is cycled. i would get a dwarf angel and a goby or firefish. you could get away with another dwarf angel. i have rusty angel (check my personal gallery). it is very beutiful. when i saw it i knew i had to have it. it was 19.99$ at a petco near my house. any small sw fish that doesnt grow larger than 4" would be good.


basic equipment: salt mix
hydrometer


thats all i bought when i switched my 12 gal. to sw and havent had any problems. i have 1 rusty angel 1 yelowtailed damsel 1 yellow damsel. 1 seargent major damsel, and one watchman goby. the damses are all 1-11/2" long. rusty angel is 21/2-3" long. goby is 3" long

my advice. dont buy damsels. very aggressive and too plain.

good luck w/ sw and dont give up

 

[Stella]

Wow, that is a crowded tank. I wouldn't put more than 2 very small fish in a 10 gallon tank, and I wouldn't keep a dwarf angel in anything less than a 55 gal (you could get away with a 20L for Cherub angels and similar species). You really can't combine dwarf angels either as they will fight with conspecifics.

Laura

 

[Zoodiver]

Salt water fish need alot more water for the size of the animal. As far as tank size, the bigger the better until you get the hang of it. With a small tank, a little water loss to evaporation will spike your salinity and possibly kill of everything. With a larger tank, water parameters don't change so quickly.

As for rays, wait awhile. Most get pretty large. I've seen people trying to sell Southern stingrays as pups in a lfs. Sadly, they get around 3 meters across and really don't belong in the pet trade. And not to totally crush the dream of owning one, but most of the smaller species don't eat once in captivity.

 

[guppy]

I have heard that a few of the round ones do fairly well but you are still looking at an 18" disc.

 

[Fish Finder]

I alway's recomend that the smallest tank you can have for a sw ray is at least 500G anything less then that don't even think about geting the ray.

 

[rweedon]

pretty much the rule that I have been taught and live by for sw is one small fish per 10 gal... go big or go home it is the rule for saltwater if you start small there is a good chance that you will lose fish and get discouraged get a larger tank... or don't bother...

 

[Ornatapinnis]

There are a few species of s.w. sting ray that are suitable for home aquariums. I regularly have the Cortez ray, yellow ray and the California ray. (if needed I can supply scientific names) The cortez is the smallaet, I have had them for several years only getting them up to about 10 or 12 inches. They are not very picky eatters, I feed mine a broad range of foods like shrimp, squid, Ocean Nutrution's Formula foods etc. They are very wimpy, don't keep fish that nip with them such as Angel fish, most puffers, triggers, strangly enough butterflys often pick at sting rays especially the heniochus. Sting ray do not acclimate easily, I put them in buckets or rubbermaid tubs with an air stone and very slowly drip water into their tub from the aquarium thay are going into. I use a piece of airline tubing with a loose knot tied at the end to regulate the drip rate. A ten gallon aquarium is not an ideal size for a salt water aquarium. A 30 to 55 gallon is about as small as I would suggest. Not to say that smaller aquariums can't be done but you wont have much room to make any mistakes (and you will) and not to many fish will do well i such a small enviroment. The best piece of equipment you could buy if your thinking about doing a salt water aquarium is a real good book on the subject. Suprisingly, the "Salt water for Dummies" book is great. I have read it and was suprised at the accurate and easy to understand information it provided. (I am not new to salt water, I have 20+ years experience) A sting ray needs a tank with a lot of bottom space with a softer substrate. I use Carib Sea's aragonite sand for sand. A 48"x18" (75 or 90 gal) is as small as I would suggest for a small ray, depending on what specie you get, you may need to get a bigger aquarium. Don't get the southern ray, they get huge!!!! THe blue dot ray is beautiful and doesn't get to big but is tough to do well. Good luck...Joel

 

[guppy]

Hiya Oratapinnus, welcome to MFK. I would love to see pics of your Cortez, is that 10-12" just the disc, is it one of the round stingers? I would like the scientific names please so I can look them up. The smallest ray(adult) that I have seen was about 18' across in a public aquarium and the only name I remenber seeing was "litttle round stingray" which wasn't very helpful.