Tips and advice on first rays

[Jesseliu13]

if you need to move in june wait until june and wait till you get a bigger tank. There are stickys on this forum that are the basics to stingray keeping. Canister filters are suitable but considered bare minimum for stingrays. Fx6 may say rated for 300 gallon but it wont keep up with what you are feeding. especially since the flow should be atleast 7-10 times size of your tank. people keep tankmates with stingrays yes, but its not required, or suggested. A suggested tankmate would be silver dollars, toilfoil barbs, and/or a semi large catfish. NOT PACUs. NO PLECOS. these tankmates are normally used as cleanup crews for the mess that stingrays make when they eat. food is also on a sticky. read it. acclimation is normally done by drip system and isolation tanks. Get a hospital tank, drip them with airline hose to acclimate the water. i normally drip mine for atleast 30 minutes and most people think its too little time. 45-60 minutes is the norm i believe (dont quote me on this). Feeding depends on whether your ray is wild caught or tank bred. If wildcaught and bought from a LFS 90% of the time it will be skinny. it's weight will just be enough for survival. Start feeding it foods to gain weight (in the sticky again). IF its from a breeder they will normally tell you what they eat. just supply the same foods. Dont try to break them till they are fat. (again sticky). as for my last tip i can not stress enough about filtration. cascase whatever or fx whatever will be bare minimum. 7-10x the rate. New hot thing is moving bed filter with k1 kaldness or the knock offs. research it. most of us if not all of us overkill the filtration. there is good reason why too. Get rid of everything exept the silver dollars, save the money and get a real tank. KH and GH normally dont matter unless you have teacups/retics/hystrix rays. they are a little more delicate. Motoros are hardy, but grow huge. you prob will try to get the bare minimum size tank possible for your rays. so you'd prob max out at 300 gallons. unless you have atleast 3-4 feet of width, no ornaments. no driftwood. sell that too. substrate or no substrate your choice. most prefer no substrate as easier to clean tank. one thing on food you may not see in the sticky is go look up foods with thiaminase. keep a list of it. these are the foods you avoid. good luck.

 

[Landon Werner]

Thanks Jesseliu13 , appreciate the time you put into it. I'm pretty sure I'm rated at 6x turnover currently and do 30 percent wc weekly so I should be good on the water chem. and I do remember reading that goldfish, not rosy reds, have high thiaminase, so I know to not feed them as I never have. I usually feed cooked 41/50 ct peeled veined shrimp to all my monster fish, and intend to with the rays. The rays are coming from Peru to a vendor on here, and then shipping to me over the course of a week or two. Again, these are my first rays, I intended and expect mistakes, as I am told it never goes the way it should the first time.

 

[Jesseliu13]

If you are getting straight from the wild, prepare some antibiotics and parasite killers beforehand. Levimisol or prazi pro (60% chance they will have parasites). And forget cooking your shrimp. feed them peeled ray. forget deveining. since they are wild prepare live earthworms. they will eat those readily.

 

[MHDevelopments]

Thanks Jesseliu13 , appreciate the time you put into it. I'm pretty sure I'm rated at 6x turnover currently and do 30 percent wc weekly so I should be good on the water chem. and I do remember reading that goldfish, not rosy reds, have high thiaminase, so I know to not feed them as I never have. I usually feed cooked 41/50 ct peeled veined shrimp to all my monster fish, and intend to with the rays. The rays are coming from Peru to a vendor on here, and then shipping to me over the course of a week or two. Again, these are my first rays, I intended and expect mistakes, as I am told it never goes the way it should the first time.

No one is trying to be the Ray police, you asked for advice and advice is what you've received.

You said these are your first rays and don't expect things to go right first time, but things can go right first time if you heed good advice.

The 4x2 is too small, period. Add in the fact you have a heavy stock list it makes it doubly too small.

To put the 4x2 into perspective. I had 4 WC caught hystrix in a 4x2, around 3" each so let's just say for arguements sake the 4 hystrix equate to 2 motoro at 6".

My 4x2 was a grow out, a 7'x30" was down the line. I did daily water changes without fail.
If you've got to wait until June for a potential bigger tank then I would just wait. It's been said already. Motoro are ten a penny and the cons of motoro far out way the pros.

Get a bigger tank, lose some of your already over sized (potential growth) stock, upgrade some filtration and go for a different species other than motoro.

On feeding, as stated previously, start with earth worms or black worms if the rays are wild caught, expect to have to treat for parasites unless the seller confirms 100% they have treated. Good luck!

 

[Landon Werner]

I'm a pretty confident the in the seller to have healthy stock, but it won't hurt to be prepared I agree. And it's ok guys I don't feel "policed". And everybody I agree as well that the 125 is a bit too small for a long period, but for now with small rays I'm positive they will be healthy until I do get a bigger tank, which it intend too and have no problem doing so. Many say that but I mean it. But either way, I do also want to decrease stock. Has anyone had problems with bichirs and rays? I have a healthy sized ornate I would like to keep with them, but the tsn and pacu will be leaving for sure. Are regular store bought earthworms ok to use? Or should I try to find some specifically sold at a LFS? Also, do they eat frozen bloodworms readily? I have a good frozen stock and supply of them.

 

[Woefulrelic]

If you expect mistakes take steps to combat them. You're setting yourself up to fail from the get go.

 

[Landon Werner]

If you expect mistakes take steps to combat them. You're setting yourself up to fail from the get go.

I'm sorry but you misunderstood. I'm saying this is why I ask for the tips and advice. Things that have happened to other people, little ones that got left out of other threads, I'm trying to get all the help I can to be successful. Most people are being very helpful. Ok, some people say retics are easier to keep than motoros, which is truly "easier" or a beginer ray? I've been told majority of the time that Potamotrygon motoro is much easier than pot. Reticulata and pot. Hystrix.

 

[davenmandy]

Go for the retics man.

 

[Woefulrelic]

I'm sorry but you misunderstood. I'm saying this is why I ask for the tips and advice. Things that have happened to other people, little ones that got left out of other threads, I'm trying to get all the help I can to be successful. Most people are being very helpful. Ok, some people say retics are easier to keep than motoros, which is truly "easier" or a beginer ray? I've been told majority of the time that Potamotrygon motoro is much easier than pot. Reticulata and pot. Hystrix.

Motoro are good because they are cheap and hardy. Retics are cheap but not hardy, hystrix are hardy but not cheap. Motoro get huge though, alongside the black rays. Your best bet is mini marbled motoro male or hystrix male, but that community is not conducive to young rays. Too much competition will make feeding them difficult imo, so you'll want something older. If you see a full grown hystrix in a 2 foot width your sensibility will tell you they would be happier with more room. Whether or not they do is up for debate. Rays are a commitment in my eyes. Imagine them like dogs, big commitment.

 

[reefman]

Go for the retics man.

Don't go with retics or teacup rays even tho they stay small and are very common. Most reticulated rays are very unhealthy. If you can find one that's been in captivity for a while and is eating I'd say go for it seeing you can keep a pair of retics in a 180. But most of the time when you see retics in a pet store there in bad shape. A good thing to look for when buying rays is look at the base of there disk where there tale is if it's fat it's healthy if you can see its hips (looks like two bones sticking up) walk away. Rays are awsome if you can house them correctly but as alot of people on here say you do need a big tank. Motoros can get up to a 30" disk