What if the stingrays sting other fish?
- Thread starter Fanatic_Fish_Lunatic
- Start date
The barb on a ray is more of a self defense type weapon. They don’t use it when hunting. My rays trap their prey under the disc and suck it into their mouth using a vacuum of water. I mistakenly thought some 7” Cichlids’s would be big enough to house with my 12-16” disc width rays. After 1 night 4 of the 5 had “mysteriously” disappeared 
I have seen rays “sting” each other in aggressive or self protective behavior. I have not heard of a ray dying from being stung by another ray, but have seen pictures of the resulting wound. It get very red and angry looking but ultimately heals unless a vital organ was to be damaged I suppose.
I have only kept rays for 1 year, so others may have more input or different experiences to report.
I have seen rays “sting” each other in aggressive or self protective behavior. I have not heard of a ray dying from being stung by another ray, but have seen pictures of the resulting wound. It get very red and angry looking but ultimately heals unless a vital organ was to be damaged I suppose.
I have only kept rays for 1 year, so others may have more input or different experiences to report.
50/50 chance of it happening… 50/50 chance of survival… IME its fairly unlikely to happen. Rays will stab each other during breeding and there usually fine. You may have to physically remove a barb from a fish or ray. Its a good practice to remove all shed barbs also as those can also be detrimental to other fish. Usually if a fish (not ray) gets stung its a goner lol… sometimes they can pull through if nothing major is punctured.
Theres alot of documentation on here of people having to physically remove barbs from rays. I once had to remove one from a large peacock bass. It ate a shed barb and it was sticking out of its head through the mouth. It lived
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Damn, that was a tough peacock bass. I was thinking to get a ray, but now I'm hesitating, lol.50/50 chance of it happening… 50/50 chance of survival… IME its fairly unlikely to happen. Rays will stab each other during breeding and there usually fine. You may have to physically remove a barb from a fish or ray. Its a good practice to remove all shed barbs also as those can also be detrimental to other fish. Usually if a fish (not ray) gets stung its a goner lol… sometimes they can pull through if nothing major is punctured.
Theres alot of documentation on here of people having to physically remove barbs from rays. I once had to remove one from a large peacock bass. It ate a shed barb and it was sticking out of its head through the mouth. It lived
Ahh ull b fine.. at least ur aware of what can happen… thats half the battle
. Its normally just during breeding attempts males can get lit up by females. Even then its usually ok. Ive had males get hit 6-7 times and just keep going. Its pretty rare for a random fish to just get tagged even in the tight quarters of a glass box.
Ok, now I'm saving my money to buy one, haha. Probably start with the cheap one first.Ahh ull b fine.. at least ur aware of what can happen… thats half the battle