Sharks & Rays

I remember the ray tank! Was there in July

 

Those rays are too cute @Reedfish!!

That doesn't look too deep either, or is it just my impression?

 

The ray tanks at our aquarium are also shallow if I remember correctly.

 

Ok... that's interesting

 

Guess what they have in our "touch" pool....spotted blue rays. There's a little sign that says no hands in the water but have seen many kids reach down and touch the rays.

 

Ummm.. haha this is making it more and more tempting...

Those are stunning!!

 

these are just to beautiful

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@MariaS yes but it's the species that nailed my brother, you could see the barbs wasn't cut. I dared him to touch one but he just walked passed not acknowledging their existence hahaha.

 

I'd struggle to chose a pic to post! Having visited both uShaka and Two Oceans, I was really spoiled for choice. I've only been to Two Oceans twice, but their young raggies are pretty handsome, and they have quite a few species of rays on display. However uShaka... I've seen 6 species of Carcharhinus, 2 species of catshark (with eggs on display!), hammerheads (which they rear in outdoor canals!), one or two types of dogfish, raggies and nurse sharks, zebra shark, 3 species of guitar fish, and 8 species of pelagic and benthic stingray. They even had a manta ray at one stage, which has since been moved to Georgia Aquarium. Quite a treat to visit!



I guess if we're on the topic of oversized tropical ponds with viewing panels...

 

Georgia Aquarium has whale sharks too. Monterey Bay has attempted to keep white sharks before, so I imagine their shark husbandry standards must be on point to try something like that.

 

Something interesting .. not sure if you heard about it.. The Two Oceans Aquarium did the first blood transfusion in the World on a ray and saved her life after their rays were ill from parasites
This was last year sometime, if I remember correctly

 

@Reedfish.... just something amazing

Checked, it was actually in 2014

Blood transfusions are routine for humans, but stingrays? That’s exactly the action the Two Oceans Aquarium had to take, to save the life of one of its short-tail stingrays.


Aquarium vet Dr George and aquarist in charge of quarantine, Nicholas Nicholle, in the process of the blood transfusion. Photo by Kevin Spiby
Aquarists taking care of the juvenile short-tail stingrays on display in the Atlantic Ocean Gallery observed recently that the animals were not eating.

Upon closer inspection they discovered the rays’ gills were very pale. Dr Georgina Cole, our resident vet (who is nicknamed “Dr George”), suspected gill flukes (worm-like parasites) and dewormed the rays.

“We saw large numbers of flukes fall off in the water after the deworming treatment. This particular gill fluke parasite feeds on blood,” says Dr George. “Unfortunately, one of the rays had severe anaemia and died in quarantine a few days later.”

The condition of a second ray was deteriorating rapidly and so, after discussions with a vet at the Georgia Aquarium in the US, Dr George decided that a blood transfusion was the ray’s best chance of survival. She first conducted a blood compatibility test to ensure that the blood of one of the healthier rays matched that of the sick ray.


A close-up of the transfusion. Photo by Kevin Spiby
With assistance from some curious curatorial staff, Dr George anaesthetised both animals and first drew blood from the caudal vein (which is at the base of the ray’s tail) from the donor animal.

She added some heparin, which is an anti-coagulant, and had two assistants rock the syringes of blood back and forth so that no clots formed (human blood transfusions are easier, as the blood “kit” already contains all the necessary elements to prevent clotting).

The blood was then slowly transferred via catheter into the caudal vein of the sick ray. Thirty minutes later the procedure was complete, and Dr George had performed the first-ever ray blood transfusion at the Two Oceans Aquarium.

The ray’s condition improved significantly, and within 48 hours it was eating again. It is now back on display in the Atlantic Ocean Gallery, and hasn’t looked back.


The healthy, happy ray reunited with her ray buddies. Photo by Renée Leeuwner

 

Here it is the same.. The most experienced well known vets for animals cant help you with fish...

I had a bit of a problem I wanted help with a couple months ago and same.. an excellent vet put me onto Koi keepers to help me with the info I needed, needless to say everything they wanted to tell me would kill the rays.... and never be of any use to ray keepers
that's how I landed making contact with the Vet at Two Oceans ray section...

I then ended up with Dr Fernandes Marques at the University of Sao Paulo.. he sent me to Professor Marcus Domingues at the University of Braganca also in Brazil... they carry out intense studies on rays ....from there he put me onto Professor David Vaughan at the parasitology laboratory at the James Cook University in Australia ... absolutely wonderful people who kept involving everyone they thought necessary to teach me what I needed
As it happened Proff Vaughan was highly involved at the Two Oceans and stayed in SA for some time
After all this, I was put in contact with Dr Paul Elshowe in South Africa who specializes in fish and probably the only one we have to take us forward. An absolutely fantastic and caring person who is specializing in treating fish and really cares about them
So yes... fish have a long way to go to be looked upon as real pets by most people