[APD] Stingrays

["John Thompson" <jdt70 at earthlink_net>]

    I recently added a freshwater stingray to my planted 55 gal.  I admit it was an impulse buy but so far I am very pleased with the addition.  It is of the species Hystric.  Common name is "Mottled Ray".  These are suppose to be the smallest of the freshwater rays and doesn't get any bigger than a pleco.  I was a littled worried that it might dig things up but so far seems to be content to just glide around the tank.  I have a cleared area that it is particularly fond of when active.  When resting it sits under the leaves of my bare root anubis.  Weekly water changes are necessary to insure nitrate levels stay low.  Freshwater rays are suppose to increase the nitrate levels as a biproduct of their osmoregulation.  I have good biofiltration and I do regular water changes anyway to prevent build up of excess nutrients.  So far I have not had any undesirable changes as a result of adding the ray.  Do any of you know a down side to keeping these guys in a planted tank?  From w!
 hat I have found on the web the water conditions of a planted tank are exactly what they like.  The literature says they like the same conditions as Discus.  Makes since since they come from the same rivers.  All reports that I have found say the will ignore most fish.  I can confirm that they love shrimp.  This would preclude having any of the expensive ornamental shrimp in with one.  Ghost shrimp sell for 20 cents at most stores so I keep the tank loaded with these and the ray takes one every day or so.  It also will happily take frozen shrimp from hand.


John D. Thompson
jdt70 at earthlink_net
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