# Setting up a Stingray Tank



## ian8834 (Sep 22, 2008)

Hello. If you have followed any of my posts before, I currently have a 125-gallon tank. Originally, I had 3 massive oscars and a 12" pleco in there. Today, I traded those Oscars for $50 of store credit from a store close to my home. I then used this credit to buy one African knifefish, one needlenose gar, and one elephant nose.

So right now in my 125-gallon aquarium, I have the following:

(1) 12" pleco
(1) 4" needlenose gar
(1) 4" elephant nose

In my 20-gallon, I have the following:
(1) 4" African butterfly
(1) 5" African knifefish

Over the next two weeks, I am going to try and turn my big tank into a stingray tank. Next week, I will take out all decoration and gravel, and then add sand. Then the week after that, I hope to add a stingray. The pleco will be removed from the tank and sold before the stingray is added.

Here are a few questions and concerns...

(1) Are all of these fish, even the ones in the 20-gallon, compatible with a stingray? I think all of them should be fine except for the elephant nose, but I was wondering everyone elses opinion.

(2) The elephant nose likes to dig around in the bottom of the tank. Will he be fine with sand?

(3) The elephant nose currently has a hiding place he really likes. When I add the stingray, should I leave the hiding place for him?

(4) Should I add plants to the tank when I add sand? I have researched all of the fish, and the needlenose gar and elephant nose both appear to prefer tanks with plants. If I should add plants, what kind, and where should I position them so they won't interfere with the stingray?

(5) I have 2 bigger pieces of driftwood in there now. Should I leave them in the tank once the sand has been added? If so, where should they go as to not disturb the stingray?

(6) The guy at the pet store told me to only add sand that was made specifically for aquariums. He tried to sell me twenty 5-lb. bags at $3 each (total of $60). I can go and buy sand from other places for like $6-8 for 50 lbs. Would that stuff work instead? Or is it something I should research first? I would love it if I could save $40 and have no adverse affects on the fish.

(7) Does this setup sound neat to you? I personally prefer oddball and exotic fish. I think that this setup, if I can get it up successfully, should kick ***.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

1. Yes/no. yes, they will be fine with the stingray, until it decides to eat them. Rays are voracious predators, and will eat anything they can fit in their mouth.

BTW, how big/what kind are you bringing in?

2,3. leave it be if it's happy there.

4. plants and rays don't mix. Generally, every ray set up I have seen had been sand, sand and more sand. Maybe a few features here and there (stones, wood).

5. leave it in.

6. The undersides of rays are very sensitive. make sure to get rounded sand.

7. sounds neat. Check out monsterfishkeepers.com. there are a lot of ray keepers there, so you should be able to see how they're stocking theirs too.


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## ian8834 (Sep 22, 2008)

The ray will probably be a 4"-6" teacup. I'll have to order it, so I don't know the size yet. Thanks for the advice!


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## aeri (Sep 9, 2007)

All the fish you listed may be at risk of being eaten by the stingray, depending on its size. It is also common for plecos and flagtails to suck the slime off of stingrays, which stress them out, cause damage, and even death...but then you're selling the pleco.

As for a 125G, assuming it's the standard 60x18 footprint, probably would only be suitable for a reticulated teacup stingray for life. Any others would easily grow too large for it.

I think plants and driftwood should be okay, depending on what type of stingray again. Rays will likely move them around.

Rays produce a ridiculous amount of feces (poo) than any other fish I've seen of relative size. Make sure you have more than enough filtration for your tank. At the same time, you need to make sure you have water flow along the bottom of your tank because ammonia build up tends to settle on the bottom, which is where your ray will be, and rays are extremely sensitive to changing water conditions (motoros and reticulated are a bit hardier). Do NOT buy atlantic "freshwater" stingrays. They require absolute pristine water with 0 fluctuations as they excrete excessive urea since they came originally came from salt water (refer to: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=507604&postcount=4).

You'll have to be really careful on what type of sand you buy. Even pool filtered sand varies, and in my experience most of the ones you find in Toronto are fairly sharp, no matter what the shop owner says. You'll notice the stingray is uncomfortable when its belly starts turning pink or red. There is some finer sand that can be found at Home Depot that should be ok, but it's fine to the point that it's a pain to clean, and gets shifted and floats easily. The best and easiest is to keep a bare bottom tank. Also keeping in mind that if you had water flow along the bottom of the tank, it will probably blow your sand as well.

Examine your ray before you buy them. Don't buy on impulse, know how it was kept and what it was eating in particular. Ask the owner to throw in some food to see which is the first one to react. Stingrays are one of the hardest fish to get on pellets. Younger ones usually start out with feeder guppies and ghost shrimp (that's about $5/week), then you get them used to either smelt or market shrimp, then to bloodworms, then to sinking pellets. You may lose your patience and just leave them with feeders, but rays also die easily from poor diet (feeders are not enough). Also, because they usually stay on the bottom and are picky eaters, they'll have a hard time even trying to compete for food with other tankmates. Eventually when they get used to eating it will be okay. My female motoro comes to the top to eat hikari floating pellets.

KEEP in mind to be extremely careful handling rays, when you bring it home, move it to different tanks, redecorating, or changing water, because their tails are poisonous and upon contact you'll probably have to go straight to the hospital.

Do lots of research on http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=116 . it helps.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

I must say that is an amazingly informative post, and we'll written to.


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