# Stingrays



## Guest (Jun 18, 2011)

Alright got my cariba ! Onto the next tank now............... This is the tank I want 48 x 48 x 24 tall rimless glass aquarium What do you guys think? I am open to suggestions on what type of rays to stock it with. Seems like it would be ideal for rays... without a lid on it though kinda stinks because I cant have anything in there with the rays (arrowana or payara were my hope)

So I guess my question is do you think that is a good tank for rays?

If so how many could possibly live in there?

The rays I wanted in there are a hystrix,flower and a florida ray do the florida rays get same water conditions as the other 2?

Tank is going to be drilled going to a huge sump.

Thanks for any tips or advice.


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## Smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

That's a sweet tank for a variety of things... heck I'd make a cover for that thing if it was me


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2011)

Well, what I am doing is building a bunch of aquariums into a wall in my basement... and having the room behind hold sump for all of them.I am going to have around 4 tanks built into the wall. And then this tank is going to be in the wall just enough to have the overflow back there, and the rest is going to be hanging out of the wall. so to gravel vac this one I wont be able to do it from the room. A lid will kind of ruin the effect i am going for want to view from the top. there is also one that is 48 x 48 x 16 would that also house the rays ok??? dont know if it will be to low and they will plop over the side onto my floor.


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## MFNRyan (Mar 27, 2011)

have you kept rays? They cost a lot of money and die for no reason? I don't know about mixing those breeds either pluse your looking at around a grand for that. Most the rays will hide in your sand 90% of the time and if they aren't able to will get very stressed, eat weird, act weird and eventually die. Any fish you put in the tank will end up dead also. I gave up after 2 rays died


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## Guest (Jun 18, 2011)

Nope never kept a ray..... but with a 355g sump when all said and done going to be around a 1000g total system so I think that will improve my success rate... also planning on a bare bottom tank. plenty of people keep rays... cannot be impossible.

and if your not looking to spend a ton of cash your in the wrong hobby ! costs around $1,000 to have a proper setup for a shoal of 8 cariba ! So if I only put $1,000 into my ray set up i will be excited. but the tank is $1,000 alone. and the rays will be around $700


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## balluupnetme (Oct 23, 2006)

The hardiest of all rays is the motoro sting ray and they can be purchased from the sponsors here, but do more research before making a purchase, hopefully someone with knowledge of sting ray chimes in


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## MFNRyan (Mar 27, 2011)

I have had three rays, to Motoro and one hystix. They are expensive about 400 bucks. An they need substrate on the bottom or you will cause it a lot of stress, it wont eat, grow or look right. People do tanks with none so they can actually see them. Also having a lot of gallons will help you, but very little. The hard thing is administering to the rays needs. Twice as hard as P's. I would advise doing a lot of research first just to save your self a lot of time money and heartache. The longest any of mine lasted was 4 months. I keep up with the water an the food and everything. They are hard to medicate on account of having skin like and not scales. They are hard to care for period. They are super awesome but holy man are they hard to keep. And you cant mix anything with them, they require huge tanks that will basically look empty 98% of the time. Just user experience man, take it how ya want.


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## BLKPiranha (May 1, 2010)

c_granger21 said:


> Alright got my cariba ! Onto the next tank now............... This is the tank I want 48 x 48 x 24 tall rimless glass aquarium What do you guys think? I am open to suggestions on what type of rays to stock it with. Seems like it would be ideal for rays... without a lid on it though kinda stinks because I cant have anything in there with the rays (arrowana or payara were my hope)
> 
> So I guess my question is do you think that is a good tank for rays?
> 
> ...


Not a good site to get ray advice! The advice so far is wrong! I could talk all day about my 12 rays but you would be better off reading some threads on MFK in the stingray section as you need to know more info and it would be to much typing for me! Rays aren't hard to keep but you need to have some experience in keeping fish as they are harder to keep then piranha.


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## BLKPiranha (May 1, 2010)

RedBelly11 said:


> The hardiest of all rays is the motoro sting ray and they can be purchased from the sponsors here, but do more research before making a purchase, hopefully someone with knowledge of sting ray chimes in


X2


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## MFNRyan (Mar 27, 2011)

My first one was a motoro ray, he died 3 weeks after I got him, was about 7 inches around i paid 225. The guy at the pet store I know real well so he gave me a 5'' ray for free since the first died. The only info I had on them was what I got from him. I keep the water ammonia an nitrate free like he said. First one didn't bury in the sand but also didn't move much. Second one after a few days was always hiding in the sand. he would eat then move around some then disappear. 4 months he was dead, no warning signs. Last one I got was my Hystrix, I paid 400 for him. After a month he got some sort of parasite i'm guessing from a bad fish. I had to remove him from the tank and give him a shot once a week for 3 weeks since dosing the water did nothing for him. He bounced back but died about 4 weeks later. I don't know from what or why.. Maybe it's because I don't know enough about them, or just suck either way my ray experiance was not a good one and most people I talk to had stories about the same.


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## bob351 (Oct 23, 2005)

I have kept many rays and grown many rays from pups to 2' giants... they only die due to human error like BLK said

read up on some other forums for ray info... mfk is pretty good... I belong to an arowana forum that has great info and a bunch of ray breeders but i doubt they will let you in since trav has been waiting for activation for a few months now I dont get it but anyways









my advice... bare bottom, feed earth worms if they are picky at first this will help them get fat and also keep em alive if they refuse other food like shrimp this way you can then starve them into other food without them dieing on you (they gobble earth worms up like a crack addict and the last rock) other than that... keep the water impeccable and you wont have any issues i have had rays for many years now up untill i moved and had to sell them. I always kept rays with asian arowanas and it is my personal favorite tank setup. Be carfull with bigger chiclids a they might pick at the eyes of the rays... i had an oscar bully rays but i put him in another tank as soon as this happend.

Also would put 3 adult rays(2-3' disks) in there for two reasons rays can get freaking huge so that tank might not be big enough for some of the larger rays and they are ammonia machines... I would go with a 1.2 trio of leopildi or marble motoros if your on a budget... you can always breed and sell the pups and with leopoldi you can make a killing.


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## MFNRyan (Mar 27, 2011)

Sorry, I guess it was just me that sucked, not keeping the rays in general. i misinformed you.


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## bob351 (Oct 23, 2005)

most people have your issue with rays... problem is that alot of the info out there is wrong and these fish are very finkiy come in with parasites and most of the time people buy them with there hip bones poking out and skinny tails so most are doomed from the start unless you can fatten them up with earthworms or some other high fat food they love... they are not easy fish to keep by any stretch.

My craziest ray experience was one ray with a fishing hook sticking out of its belly from import it took like a month or so for it to poke out but one day there it was the barbed end of the hook sticking out under the fish... it eventually rusted away but there was a freaking hook coming out of its belly







glad the ray made it but this goes to show these fish can handle alot given proper care and proper food... they should look like this with bulding backsides like in this video:




unfortunately most people buy them with hip bones looking like there going to poke out and a skinny tail and sometimes even ribs showing...


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## MFNRyan (Mar 27, 2011)

mine had parasites. I had to give it shots. So it got to where when i came to the tank it swam the other way. He F'n hated me for it


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