Don't forget to treat your water with water conditioner! Substrate on the bottom of your ray tank is optional, many hobbiests prefer to keep glass bottoms for easy cleaning and to avoid accidental ingestion.
If a glass bottom is not appealing a very fine sand is perfectly acceptable and safe Pisces recommends CaribSea Super Naturals Premium Aquarium Substrate. Because rays like to dig and burrow under substrate, plants can be more of a nuisance than a benefit. Brazilian driftwood, decorative smooth rocks and floating silk plants make great decoration for a ray tank.
River rays are carnivorous. In the wild, they prey on small fish and crustaceans along the floor. In captivity, blood worms and raw shrimps make excellent meals for your rays! If you don't have the time to thaw food every day, many captive rays will feast on carnivorous sinking pellet food Pisces recommends: Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets. If you have more than one ray, make sure to carpet your food evenly across the bottom of the tank so all the rays get a portion of food.
The ideal tank mates for freshwater rays are large, peaceful fish. Since rays spend their time on the tank floor, you want to avoid crustaceans as they will be in danger of being eaten by the rays. On the other hand, you want to avoid small, aggressive fish as they may nip at the rays. Arowanas, flowerhorns, birchirs and silver dollars make ideal tank mates for a sting ray tank. Plecos and sucker catfish are known to cause injury to rays by sucking on their soft bodies.
Look for upper and middle level swimmers in your ray tank to keep the bottom free for the rays! Click here for shipping policies. Once the prey is found, the ray will use its strong sucking power to consume the prey. In the wild, stingrays eat fish, clams and crustaceans like crab, lobster and shrimp. Here at the Zoo, they are eating shrimp, squid and occasionally krill. And you can feed them!
Those of you with shellfish allergies should know that you will be handling shrimp during feeding time. Proceeds from your admission to Stingray Cove help maintain the life support system and other costs associated with the complex pool system, as well as fund valuable conservation efforts and ecology research. To gain a better understanding of stingray biology and aid in conservation efforts, scientists are conducting research on the behavior, reproduction, genetics and population characteristics of the southern stingrays in the Cayman Islands and Caribbean.
Research is also being done on the rise and decline of specific species of rays and sharks, including the cownose ray. The findings from these studies will help formulate management strategies for wild populations. I Accept. Buy Tickets Admission and Hours Membership. Support the Zoo About Us. Cownose stingray Southern stingray Bonnethead shark Brown-banded bamboo shark White-spotted bamboo shark. Feeding Facts Since stingrays cannot easily see their prey, they utilize smell and special sensory receptors called ampullae of Lorenzini to help locate buried prey.
At Stingray Cove , the rays will take the food right out of your hand! Leave as much of the bottom as possible open for the rays to swim and bury in the sand. Heaters should have a guard around them or be in-line or located in a sump to prevent your stingrays from burning themselves on them.
Stingrays spend most of their time on the bottom. Their eyes and gill inlets called spiracles are located on top of their bodies which allows them to remain buried in the sand waiting for food to come along. They have excellent eyesight and leap out of the sand to trap prey with their bodies. The best tank mates for freshwater rays are other rays, although severums, Geophagus species, silver dollars, arowanas and bichirs are possibilities, as well.
Different species and sizes of stingrays can be mixed as long as there is adequate space and filtration. Beyond that, compatible fish should be large enough to not get eaten by the rays, yet peaceful enough to not nip at them or steal their food. Middle to upper water level swimmers are best so that your rays have free access to the bottom. Avoid plecostomus and other suckermouth catfish, as they are known to injure rays by sucking on their soft bodies.
Freshwater stingrays are carnivores, feeding mostly on fish and crustaceans in the wild. Many hobbyists feed live blackworms to get new rays eating as soon as possible, but frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp, raw shrimp or white fish tilapia and live earthworms are better choices once rays are acclimated to their new surroundings. Freshwater rays can be taught to take food from tweezers or even from your hand. Always check local and state regulations before purchasing any animal.
Before buying a stingray, make sure the edges of the disc are not curled upward known as the "death curl" and there are no visible injuries. Ask to see the fish eat and avoid individuals that show no interest in food. Never buy a stingray that has just arrived in the store; give them a week or more to settle in before taking them home.
When adding new rays to an existing population, always quarantine them for at least 30 days before introducing them to your existing fish.
0コメント