To all the people who have bare bottom tanks

[Just Toby]

From re-reading the type of language used in this thread and the type of responses.....it seems to me that bare bottom is for the keeper and sand is for the Ray.

My pearl spends all of his time sifting in the sand.

Interesting point someone made about rays pooping out gravel, I wonder if they need some in the gut, same as a chicken? My rays do not accidentally eat anything, if there was a bit of poop near some food, they pick put the food and reject the poop (or dirt from worms) they even eject if from the spiracles...

 

[always4lora]

I have had my rays in bare bottom and in sand and soft gravel, one buries in the sand from time to time the other pays no attaention to the substrate. in the wild they probs live in mud i would of thought. Anyway you do it neither is natural being in a fish tank.

 

[aquaman45]

From re-reading the type of language used in this thread and the type of responses.....it seems to me that bare bottom is for the keeper and sand is for the Ray.

My pearl spends all of his time sifting in the sand.

Interesting point someone made about rays pooping out gravel, I wonder if they need some in the gut, same as a chicken? My rays do not accidentally eat anything, if there was a bit of poop near some food, they pick put the food and reject the poop (or dirt from worms) they even eject if from the spiracles...

Totally agree Toby,ive never seen any ray of mine defecate pebbles,it is well documented that many large predatory catfish ie Redtails(Phractocephalus) ingest small stones and pebbles to aid digestion but ive never heard it with rays.Like you also pointed out,rays are very quick to reject foreign bodies and in many cases perfectly edible ones also....never mind gravel...lol!!

 

[sea7ray]

personally i'm a sand man and always will be. Rays accustomed or not have a natural behavioural instinct to bury themselves when under stress. That could be for any reason frankly i'm 100% sure its beneficial for them. (Also there was a recent paper discussing the blowing action of rays as tool use)
Having done animal behaviour as part of my freshwater biology honours degree i can only say that environmental enrichment should be at the forefront of any fishkeepers thoughts

 

[keepinfish]

Carpet and hardwood floors are not natural either but it sure feels better for me than walking on the dirt lol. I notice a ray will no longer bury itself once it gets accustomed to a tank. I think if rays could talk, they would ask for a smooth bottom tank hehe.

LOVE IT! POINT MADE!

Totally agree Toby,ive never seen any ray of mine defecate pebbles,it is well documented that many large predatory catfish ie Redtails(Phractocephalus) ingest small stones and pebbles to aid digestion but ive never heard it with rays.Like you also pointed out,rays are very quick to reject foreign bodies and in many cases perfectly edible ones also....never mind gravel...lol!!

Hmm i have to disagree. I have a tank with BB and a tank with sand. I notice when i moved my rays to the bare bottom tank that i always am dipping sand off the bottom of the tank to keep it clean looking. Where is this sand coming from? i have never had sand in this tank before? The rays are excreting sand from the food they eat is the only explanation. My rays have been in this tank for a while and just the other day i had to clean out more sand again.

 

[Florencebigfish]

We have small gravel in with our batman ray and bare bottom in our breeding pond. The big rays in the breeding pond are too busy swimming in the current and chasing each other around to worry about whether there is sand or not. We had sand in there and it was a PAIN IN THE BUTT!! Our pup tank is bare too. I can count on one hand the # of times Batgirl has buried herself in the gravel in her tank and she has been in there since January. Just our .02.

 

[Proximus]

Just to mention -it`s not only about whether they can bury themself or not... is it?
My rays "never" bury themself, but still they spend hours digging and blowing in the substrate, moving rocks, wood... throwing things around...
Also when i feed they really have to work for some of the food. I know this is good for them, so ill never go back to BB.

Sand have been a pain in the ass for me too btw... like mud it spread out and end up in my filters. I like to have high sirculation in the water for my fish, specially for the rays, so sand dont work. Gravel does.

 

[DavidW]

The word you may be looking for is Gastrolith?
Dr Rincon thought that sand/dirt/etc DOES play a small role in stingrays' digestion, but they don't have a muscular stomach to perfectly fit the definition of gastrolith.

re BB or not BB.
There is no right or wrong way, just don;t have any substrate too deep , to avoid anaerobic 'dead' spots. In the wild a ray can swim away if it doesn't like the substrate, and the type of substrates in the various rivers would have been a major influencing factor in the evolution of rays' markings.
Also....if you are relying on your substrate for any amount of biofiltration then you are headed for a problem.
i do agree with enrichment tho. Rays have been shown to have relatively large brains to their body size and display intelligence of a fairly high order

 

[sea7ray]

Totally agree there is no wrong or right way these fish are after all being kept in captivity. That saidI do think that a totally bare tank should have something in to enrich mental stimulation be that other fish, decor or anything else and that is my personal view from education, experience and general research.
My tank has all the above and because of that i see behaviour that isn't possible in bare tanks but really is worth watching