Freshwater Stingrays

[Peckoltia]

G'day

Figure there would be some fish keepers on the site, I have found over the years that the two hobbies tend too overlap at times.

I have been keeping and breeding stingrays for the last 5 years. Started out with just regular Motoro's and went from there. At the moment I have 4x (1m 3F) hybrid rays - Mantilla X Motoro X Leopoldi. Really enjoy the hybrids as they morph and change a lot as they mature. Always interesting to see pups change as they grow, picking a winner out of a group of pups can be challenging and it takes a keen eye to spot potential at a young age.

FW Rays are a lot more maintenance then your average aquarium fish - their prehistoric digestive/metabolic system produces a lot of waste ammonia - filtration needs to be top notch and they can be particularly sensitive to poor water quality.

This is my boy, currently just shy of 12months old and about 25cm across the disk. Should be a great breeding stud. His claspers have just started to roll (sign of maturity) and should be fully mature in the next 6 months time. Still has some morphing left in him.



A pic of each of the three girls - all about 18months old and about 40-45cm across the disk.

 

[Nero Egernia]

They're beautiful. I always love seeing rays when at the beach. The only aquatic critter I have is an Axolotl named Iorek Byrnison, had him for over four years now. When he matured we found out that he was actually a she. I had a pair when I was in my early teens and they even bred for me a couple of times. I kept one of their babies. But unfortunately they died when I was away in boarding school and my kid cousins dumped all the food in the tank, fouling the water.



Please excuse the poor photo. If I didn't keep using space for reptiles I would definitely consider aquatic animals.

What do you feed your rays?

 

[Peckoltia]

I feed them a few different types of pellets all mixed in with each other and supplement this with some frozen/fresh foods - squid, fish fillets and whitebait. Rays eat a lot.

 

[Charles Sen]

Very interesting post Peckoltia! I have see some stunning examples in SE Asia and they always get my immediate attention, especially the black and white colour varieties. Yours look spectacular. If you'd care to post a picture of your setups I would love to see them!