What stingrays are not in the family, Potamotrygonidae and can be kept?

[Mudslinger14]

What stingrays are not in the family, Potamotrygonidae and can be kept in home aquarium?

I live in Arizona, and all freshwater stingrays in the family Potamotrygonidae are illegal here

 

[the_deeb]

There are the small-eyed rays in the Paratrygon family (eg. ceja ray and antenna ray) but they are rare and somewhat delicate. Plus they are similar enough to the Potamotrygon that they may also be banned.

The easiest ones to find are probably the Atlantic stingrays (Dasyatis sabina), which can be kept in FW but produce large amounts of waste so you'll need an excellent filtration system.

There are also the asian Himantura rays. The best known is probably the giant chaophraya, but there are smaller species too that may be suitable for aquariums but they are rarely imported.

 

[Mudslinger14]

I have read up on the atlantic stingrays. There was someone who said a few people on MFK that have reported their rays didn't last longer than a couple of months...Because of them creating 10x as much ammonia in freshwater than saltwater. Is this true?

 

[the_deeb]

Yes, they excrete a lot more urea/ammonia in freshwater (not sure about 10X but certainly a lot more). Under conditions of increasing salinity they store the urea in their plasma and tissues to maintain osmotic balance with the surrounding water. In FW they just excrete it all out to maintain relatively low plasma osmolarity.

I imagine that you would need a large tank with a very good filtration system to successfully keep these guys in captivity. I'm sure it can be done but would be a much more difficult setup than for Potamotrygons, so most people who try to keep them probably don't provide appropriate conditions.

I think your best option would be Antenna rays ( Plesiotrygon Iwamae). They can be tricky to keep but the husbandry issues are probably easier to overcome than for some of the other options. I believe they are currently available from Aquascape, but given that they look quite similar to some Potamotrygon species you should probably check with your local authorities to make sure you can legally keep them.