Sharks & Rays

@SalmonAfrica , yes... haha I know they were blacklisted until 2014 which is when Ray (Mantilla) and Rose (Motoro) came in...

I am not aware of any in Gauteng before that but there might have been a handful which if so, were kept very quiet and no one is admitting to this...

On our side of the world, they have been coming in regularly and the interest and demand has grown and there is a substantial amount of ray keepers at the moment which unfortunately are not on TASA and if they are they not chatting.. which is sad.. but maybe it will slowly change ... I hope so ....

Mostly coming in are Motoro and Thai Hybrids and despite the exchange rate, prices for these (ok I know its expensive) but taking into consideration its an exotic fish are not outrageous.....ranging between 2k and 3.5k for something out of the ordinary

Hysterix I have never heard of being imported and they could not source me some when I tried...

 

Oh yes... a pond.... that would just be awesome.. unfortunately our outdoor weather does not allow it without going through great expense..

 

Given my planned career undercover water space and large tanks won't be a huge problem....

 

Out of interest what would be the ideal floor surface of an aquarium to keep rays?

 

Schoonraad">

from what I learned , the biggest you can get your hands on , like Maria said...
the std rays that come in are Motoro - Mantilla , and motoro's get quite huge raging in disc size from 50-70cm+ , hybrids shouldn't get that huge depending on what the ray has been crossed with so one should get at least a tank width of at least 1m , females do get larger than males...
high is not much of an issue , around 60cm high is good , and lenght 7ft+
a good size for two adults is 2440x800x730 like I bought myself , I am not planning to breed , because there are some complicated issues in breeding and one needs to split the two , but if you doing an all male or female display tank , that size would be the minimum(2440x800x730)

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60cm height is cutting it very, very fine when you have a minimum 50cm ray swimming up and down the glass....

Sorry.. cant agree on this one...

 

hmmm , okay...
730h? minimum , given water level is 650 then

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This is true for all fish, good point.

 

One day when im big I'll go Ray

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Ahhh.. you can do it if you set your mind to it!!

Now.. this is my dream... but no matter how big i get... it will always stay a dream..

@EnvironmentalBro .. @Pierré Schoonraad .. hink you will enjoy this picture

 

Wow!!! Imagen that. You can add some arowana in there and we will be very close to perfect.

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Yes.... that is a dream pond.....

 

That is just awesome. Now take it a bit further and sink it into the floor by about 1m, add a viewing glas at the front with a nice coach infront of it. Who need TV? Perfect. @MariaS your tempting me now.

 

To be honest i am not sure @Reedfish... Cant remember if @Cesar got if off Facebook or someone sent it to him and he sent it to me...
I just love it

I agree with you and @Pierré Schoonraad that it looks a bit shallow but could also be the angle of the photo

Pierre.. as it is, i hardly ever watch TV.. Cesar actually asked me the other day if my TV still works!!!
So.. yes that pond with a couch in front of it would suit me perfectly!!
haha the rays are tempting you now are they?

 

O yes @MariaS they defnitly do. Unfortunately I don't have space for a tank for them. If I ever go in that direction I plan a tank of 2mx2mx1m done in acrylic with rounded corners. 2 x 1.5m sumps for filtration. And a tree stump standing in the centre with roots going all over the bottom. At least I can dream about it at the moment.

 

We have similar dreams Maria A heated indoor pond with a terrestrial section and waterfall is what I want to do. Basically run it on a koi pond filtration system and heat it with solar. The problem is that the bigger the fish the more it eats and I know people are particularly finicky about feeding Rays a mixed frozen food diet which is not cheap or easy. I'm more likely to do a Malawi cichlid biotope than Rays and Arrows.

 

Oh.. it doesn't have to be rays... can be your favourite fish... irrespective of fish.. it stunning...

Im throwing my couches out.. people can sit outside... then I can do the indoor pond in my lounge... hehehe

 

Sounds good!

The tank I'd love is a dim African tank, African knives, ctenopoma and African hingemouths with a lot of structure and floating plants. Poly tanks as well as an African river tank