sting ray??? (FW)

[Roach]

Has anyone had any dealings with fresh water sting rays? I saw a small the other day at my LFS for sale and have seen some rather large ones in other aquariums before. In my tank I have an 11" arrowana, a 10" sailfin pl*co and a 9" ghost knife. Do you think I could have problems with this combination if I were to introduce this sting ray? I'm mostly concerned with my pl*co because of the spines he has in his fin. My arrowana rarely goes to the bottom unless to get food, and the ghost knife just hides. Any info would be greatfully appreciated! Thanks

 

[bobrob]

In my Lfs they have about a 11 inch arrowana also which is in a tank with 4 rays and there are no problems with it at all the rays just stick to the bottom. I stood and watched them for about an hour. Dont really know the behaviour with big arrowana's and ray's though because when an arrowana gets big it likes its own tank. My friends arrowana eats anything that goes in the tank with him but if the fish is too big his arrowana will torture it until it is dead but his arrowana is massive not too sure what length it is but from back to belly its almost a foot.

 

[Torpedo]

Never seen a freshwater ray...is it another type of scavenger? What else can you put with it? I have 2 parrots and a couple of angels in a 37g tank. Sounds interesting.

 

[DocBob]

If you are thinking about getting a FW ray, I would recommend doing a bit of studying up on them first. They are beautiful animals, but have a few additional requirements. Primarily VERY claen water and a BIG tank (most reach two feet across or more). You also need to be careful about tankmates.
Here are some links to some FW ray sites.

Stingray Cit-Ay

StingrayUK

StingrayUSA

To name just a few. If you do a web search, you'll come up with a few more.
Hope this helps.

 

[jakano]

another thing about the rays is they need a sand bottom so they can bury themselves. i have never seen a ray in a tank that didnt have sand. as far as the other fish my lfs has 6 rays and two large arrowanas in a huge display tank.

 

[DocBob]

Jakano, many people keep their rays in bare bottom tanks. They do fine and it's actually much easier to keep the tank clean... rays eat a lot so they also make a lot of waste.
On the flip side, the sand looks much better (IMO), gives the rays traction, and yes they do sometimes bury themselves in it. But they don't need to. I do keep sand in my ray tank, because I really like the way it looks. But it's a bit of a pain to keep clean, and now that you mention it, I have never seen them bury themselves in it once.
They spend to much time begging for food for that!!!

 

[jakano]

i have seen them bury themselves at the lfs i mentioned. i had a 75 gallon tank set up with south american cichlids that i was going to add a ray to so i went for the sand bottom myself. i never got my ray because i was going to get it from a friend of mine who was fish breeder and could buy them at a huge discount but he passed away before i bought one and at the time i couldn't afford the retail price. i was only 19 and didnt make much money.

but on a different note do you have any problems with sand in your filters cause i sure did. my cichlids kept the sand pretty stirred up and i would get tons of it in my aquaclear 500 and my fluval 303. i would havr to tear down the filters and clean them every water change for fear of them becoming damaged.

but thanks for the info

 

[DocBob]

Sorry to hear about the ray. You should get one if you have the room. I was a little reluctant to spend the money but now am really glad I did. These are the coolest fish I've ever had. They even eat out of my hand!
As far as the filters go, I haven't had any problems as of yet. I run a Wet/Dry filter that skims off the surface, and since the tank is 24" tall, the intake from my Aquaclear 500 (I have one too) is quite a ways from the bottom. It hasn't picked any up to date. And the rays do a pretty good job of stirring things up as well!