Hello everyone i hope you're doing well in this article i'm gonna be talking about freshwater stingrays. They're fish that fascinated me for a very long time and altough most people don't have the space to keep them. They're a really big talking point of the aquarium hobby and they add another aspect to viewing a fish tank as most people view their fish tanks from the side. There are not many tank that look good when you view them from above, this is apart from koi that are obviously supposed to be viewed from above but large fish tanks that house stingrays do look amazing when viewed from above.
Now, stingrays are relatives of sharks, swordfish gates and guitarfish but stingrays can't bite in defense as i'm sure many of you know they have a venomous bath and this barb is actually a modified scale and this sting is obviously a defense mechanism, so despite what some people think stingrays will not come at you waving their stringers it's used as a last resort against the predators.
You really have to harras a stingray to get it to sting you the barbs are shed and replaced with new ones periodically and discharged spines can be found lying on the bottom of the aquarium and they do make a great collector's item and like their relatives to sharks stingrays can actually sense electrical impulses in the water and this helps them find prey in the wild. Many people who are not interested in aquarium hobby may be surprised to learn that some stingrays live in freshwater and it's thought that freshwater stingrays started off in the sea and then over millions of years adapted to live in freshwater.
Freshwater stingrays are very intelligent and quite interactive with humans and they will often explore every last inch of their aquarium and they always seem to search for hiding places and scraps of food and some stingrays can even be taught to hand feed but as i said at the beginning of this article you need to be willing to put in the effort and money to get a big enough tank and filtration for a freshwater stingray.
This is because they need pristine water conditions and specialized diets. And keeping pristine water quality in a tank with freshwater stingrays can be quite hard. As not only are they big fish, they are known to create more ammonia than the similar sized fish. And as well as their amazing looks and big personality some aquarist are also interested in them, because they can be very rewarding to breed. Stingrays can share a tank with most large fish and this is mainly because they spend most of their time on the bottom of the tank waiting for the food to come along. And when food does come along they have excellent eyesight and will leap out of the sand to trap their prey with their bodies. And you can see this behaviour very commonly in the aquarium to help with this feed-in strategy their eyes and gill inlets are located on the top of their bodies which allows them to remain burried in the sand.
Although you can keep them with most large fish good tank mates for raise are severums geophagus species and silver dollars but i would avoid fish that are also bottom dwellers and it's recommended that you don't mix them with some big plecos as these fish are known to injure the rays by sucking on their soft bodies.
There are many different species of freshwater stingrays around the world. I was originally only aware of the south american species but they also can be found in southeast Asia, Australia and Afrika, because there are so many different species of rays and they're quite easy to misidentify.
Like their relatives the sharks threshold to stingrays are carnivores, feeding mostly on fish and crustaceans in the wild. Many hobbyist feed them blackworms but frozen, bloodworm, maya shrimp, raw shrimp, or whitefish are better choices now as i said earlier in the article, breeding stingrays is very intringuin, and can be very financially rewarding but this is not means an easy feat.
Breeding threshold to stingrays takes time, space and dedication. Females are larger than males and have two uteruses this means they can have litters of two pups from two different males. But males have been known to harras females constantly so it's a good idea to give the female a break from the males every once in a while.
And all freshwater stingrays are believed to give birth to life pups but as freshwater stingrays give birth to life pups the rearing is a lot easier as they already fully formed if you're looking to buy a freshwater stingray it's best to buy a captive bred stingray. This is not just because you don't run the risks of them having parasites and the risk of the freshwater stingray being malnourished but south American freshwater stingrays in the wild are under a lot of pressure, some of this comes from increasing deforestation and destruction of natural habitats but also 100 hydroelectric dams are soon to be built in the Brazilian amazon basin. And altough this is a clean renewable source of electricity is very harmful for the river's fish populations as fish and other aquatic creatures aren't able to freely move up and down the river system and this can cause a massive decrease in fish population.
This same impact can be seen in some places in north American where salmon have gone to move up a river system and been blocked by a hydroelectric dam. And because of this the fish do not spawn and they die in the river is also a well known fact that many people on the amazon hate freshwater stingrays, this is because many people rely on the amazon to catch fish so they can sell them and have food on the table and as many people are stung by freshwater stingrays while fishing. They see the freshwater stingrays as a nuisance and some people will cut off their stingers and throw them back in the river and with fish like piranha lurking this is almost a death sentence. And as the stingrays doesn't have very high quality meat this only adds to their problem.
And altough this seem very cruel to me, i have never been stung by a freshwater stingray and i do not know how it feels when someone is stung by a freshwater stingray. The tail is thrust into the victim and as this is normally a defense mechanism from being stood on the tail is normally thrust into the foot or the lower leg and this produces a deep jagged laceration the stinger then injects a protein-based toxin and this causes immediate excruciating pain.
In the aquarium they like a temperature of 75 to 80 degrees fahrenheit and a pH of 6 to 7.5 but with a freshwater stingray tank, you really need a very good filtration system as i mentioned earlier they do create a lot of ammonia and this is not helped by the fact that they need pristine water conditions.
Threshold to stingrays are very active fish and have very high metabolic rate and because of this they'll need feeding at least twice a day. They're also notoriously big eaters so it's going to cost you a considerable amount of money to keep a single specimen in good health.
In general an exclusively meaty diet is preferable. Although some will learn to accept dried food. And if you're looking to breed them, freshwater stingray pup will really appreciate frozen bloodworm tube effects and krill but the adults will appreciate larger foods such as mussels, cockles, prawns, squid and white bait.
When breeding threshold to stingrays litter sizs can vary between 1 and 8 depending on the species and the gestation period can take several months. When a females is pregnant is important that you feed her well and it is also important that she lives a stress free life as too much stress on a pregnant threshold of stingray can result in a premature birth.
But when the pups are born is a good idea to remove them from the tank do they're not predated on by other tank inhabitants. When the pups are born they usually have a small yolk sac attached to them and they will feed on this for anything up to a week after they're born. And once the pups are matured they can sell for a very high price but unfortunately not many aquarist have the space for this beautiful fish.
The other popular threshold to stingray is the Black Diamond Stingray. These freshwater stingrays are not as widespread as the previous stingrays on this list. And can only be found in central Brazil. A large female this species can measure 60 cm across the disk wich is around 24 inches and males tend to be smaller than this.
I have personally not kept stingrays before but they're one of my dream fish, and if i had to choose for myself i'd probably have to get some black diamond stingrays. That's all about this article, let me know that you've keep the freshwater stingray before in the comment below. Thank you so much for reading this, see you.
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