Teeth?

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PeteLockwood

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Sep 20, 2009
1,204
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38
Westfield NJ
I remember a post from Zoodiver saying our rays don't have teeth as we'd think of them.

But..

WTF are these if they're not what I'd think of as teeth? I've been finding these in two BB quarantine tanks I've been running with some WC Henlei. Until today I'd been vacuuming them out just figuring it was bits of grit the rays had ingested in the past but WOW was I surprised when I took the time to look closer this morning!

I've never seen anything like it in my BB Hystrix tank and my Motoro tank has gravel so I'd have no way of finding anything like this in that tank..

I know the pics aren't great, they're the best I could get with the little point-n-shoot I have available.

teeth1.jpgteeth2.jpg

teeth1.jpg

teeth2.jpg
 
I've never seen teeth in any of my tanks so this is very cool. Could they have been from something the stingray ate? Do stingrays not have plates more so than teeth or do they have both?
 
Do you have koi in these tanks? Koi tanks/ponds often have teeth that are shed from the koi.
 
Quarantine - the rays are in tanks without other fish. They're eating shrimp and worms, same shrimp and worms my other rays get, so no teeth are being put into the tank.

These rays were malnourished when I got them. One of the females had a big dent in her head, the other female's tail was constantly bent around but I've been feeding them intensively and they're improving significantly - the dent is gone and the other female's tail is now straight. I wonder if it's possible that the malnourishment they suffered could've somehow led to the teeth being loose and I also wonder what happens in terms of them being replaced?!
 
I know that with koi, they grow back.. so they will probably grow back on rays too.

This is what I found on the Florida Museum of Ntrl Histry website regarding rays:

"Stingrays have multiple rows of rounded teeth that have flat, blunt surfaces. The teeth of the upper jaw are largest midway along the jaw line and decrease towards the outer corners. The lower jaw has teeth of uniform size throughout."

Cownose Ray teeth pic:

001894w1.jpg
 
My 18" female swims up the glass all the time and sometimes you can see right into her mouth and she has what appear to be fang like teeth. If she stays still long enough i will try and get a pic of inside her mouth.
 
How big are those things that you found?


this is the information I found and were I found it.

Stingrays have multiple rows of rounded teeth that have flat, blunt surfaces. The teeth of the upper jaw are largest midway along the jaw line and decrease towards the outer corners. The lower jaw has teeth of uniform size throughout. As the Atlantic stingray enters the breeding season male teeth begin to form long, slender cusps that curve toward the corners of the mouth. This enables the male to maintain an adequate hold on the female during copulation.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/AtlanticStingray/AtlanticStingray.html
 
How big are those things that you found?


this is the information I found and were I found it.

Stingrays have multiple rows of rounded teeth that have flat, blunt surfaces. The teeth of the upper jaw are largest midway along the jaw line and decrease towards the outer corners. The lower jaw has teeth of uniform size throughout. As the Atlantic stingray enters the breeding season male teeth begin to form long, slender cusps that curve toward the corners of the mouth. This enables the male to maintain an adequate hold on the female during copulation.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/AtlanticStingray/AtlanticStingray.html

You just double posted what was already said, except I left out the Atlantic Ray part since he doesn't have Atlantic Rays.
 
pacu have human teeth like that.i bet they ate a pacu or maybe a caveman lol i look at my 10 potamotrygon rays and they dont have teeth like this.those look massive whats the size on those suckers,they look like the size of humans teeth.

and mshill that picture you posted is one freaking ugly animal looks like it could take a chomp right out of you
 
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