WC flower rays, Anything special i should know?

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jray33

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2009
128
1
0
Washington state
I have kept reticulated rays before and am going to be getting a WC pair of flower rays in a couple weeks and was looking for special care requirements; what water params would be optimum?
also would like to know what rays could interbreed with flowers.
Input greatly appreciated!
 
Well first off you make sure your tank is running optimal and ph is stable. I wouldn't try and change your ever ph, keep it what ever comes out of the tap. Rays in general don't like there ph or temp going up and down and flowers, well there difficult period. I would deffinely quarintine in bare bottom tank that you can get under and see if they are eating with no tank mates at all until they are eating, Flower ray are very shy and any food compition is not going to help. Also it sometime takes a long time for for them to start eating, don't panic just make sure you have lots of live blackworms on hand ( they work the best in most cases ) live worms small if the ray is small or cut in to bit size pieces for them and worst case scenerio one or both don't start eating right away within a week or so, seperate them, like I said earler they are very shy even to each other.
Temp should be 82-84 I personally don't believe in going any higher than that, all my tanks run at that all year round, stability is key with happy rays if your ph is abnormally high like over 8.4 you might want to look at a R/O unit and do a 50/50 mix with it, to soften water and lower the ph a bit but that only if you have a real high ph.

Breeding them has been very very very rare. They get extermly big 36"+ and mature very slow compared to other rays.
They do grow pretty fast though so i hope that you have a large foot print for your tank like at least 4x8 and to me thats not big enough for them for life.
Hope some of this help you out, Just have some paitents and everthing hopefully will work out.
 
you are going to fall in love with the flowers.i just got my first one a month ago and i love it.he is my favorite ,its difficult training them to eat frozen.i just gotmine eating frozen just a few days ago.
all i did was feed him strickly earth worms for a couple weeks,than cutt up earth worms and let them soak in a container with the shrimp , than added a bit of stinky black worm water but not much.let is sit for a hour or more than try that.
it took a bit but today and yesterday he finally swallowed straight shrimp cunks not cented with worm gutts and juice!i
good luck with the flower they are awsome rays.they also have a differnt meaner looking shaped disc.
 
Very interesting info i'm getting some columbian flowers (pair).
I'm hoping to get them this thursday.
 
Yes great info!, Iv got a bare bottom tank just for them set up, and all the blackworms you'll ever need. Will be building a plywood tank to accommodate them as they grow soon.
My Tap comes out at ph7. havnt had any problems with rays in a 7ph.

when my retic rays came in they had a piece of bamboo, or reed stuck to the stinger. can i expect the same from other WC rays? because those were hard to get off! and caused a small infection on the stinger.

After a period of quarantine, would your recommend a small layer of sand? or is fine rounded smooth gravel ok?

Gumby, so i can hope for the best once they get big but most likely wont get any babies or cross with anything? haha

Gbusiness, Lets see some pics when they come in! ill post some of mine when they do!

Calgary, thanks for the info ill deff give it a try. Do you gut load your worms, or switch the worms from dirt to oatmeal or anything, so your rays airnt ingesting dirt?
 
jray33;5065043; said:
...so your rays airnt ingesting dirt?...
don;t worry about this...rays in the wild ingest sand etc all the time. In fact it serves a slight gastrolithic purpose.
 
don;t worry about this...rays in the wild ingest sand etc all the time. In fact it serves a slight gastrolithic purpose.
I was thinking of this as i posted, they are burried in sand all day in the river they must get some sand/ dirt in their guts lol
 
Just be aware they might have hooks in them seen as they are wc, if you know anyone with a metal detector get them to scan the rays as it puts your mind at rest. I think it depends on who exports them as to weather they will have hooks or not, i hope they dont. Flowers are definitely more fragile just be patient with them and good luck.
 
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