Happy b-day me! Cortez Ray!

kogle

kogle

Member
Well my b-day was Saturday and mommy took me shopping for some tank stuff. I picked up a few corals including a nice crocea clam and a cortez ray. here are some pictures. Let me know what you guys think and if anyone has had one of these rays please let me know any info you gained along the way. It's eating like a pig so far and has made a mess of the sand bed but probably no more than a sand sifting goby or two would have... :happyfish :cheer:
:joy:


 
kogle

kogle

Member
Thanks Triga22, I couldn't get a picture that did it justice. I'll try some more tonight...
 
kogle

kogle

Member
Any of you that keep rays or even sharks I guess might help a guy out with any additional advice other than the normal pristine waters, heavily filtered, stable environment type stuff.
Is a diet of shrimp, silversides, crab, and krill going to be sufficient?
I think the tank might be a little on the small side for this guys adult size but it doesn't have a ton of LR sitting around in it and I'm leaving as much sand open as possible. I'm also only going to have a yellow tang, two clownfish and maybe another fish or two eventually so the bio load shouldn't be a problem.
I run a good skimmer and don't have any water issues other than the calcium being a little low (around 380 for the past few months)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated...
 
fishgeek01

fishgeek01

Active Member
happy b-day and congrats, can't help you on the ray though, we'll need to have a meeting at your place one of these months to see the tank...
 
kogle

kogle

Member
Thanks Jay. I'd be up for a meeting at my house.
Ophiura can you give me a little more insight on this? I ask becasue I trust your advice. Do you forsee a problem with the corals?
 
rcdude1990

rcdude1990

Active Member
srry to rain on this but rays need a lot of open room, open sand, meaning u really cant have LR in the tank. by the looks of u tank it looks like he only has like 5 inches of open room in the front going back and forth
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Size, behavior, waste, food preferences...
Corals sting. I see you have several near or on the sand.
Rays "dig" to bury themselves, this tosses sand onto corals.
They are "big eaters" and hence big producers of waste, leading to water quality issues.
They get to be a pretty decent size, and will be cramped. In general, I don't recommend much LR at all in ray tanks - they may get a bit scratched up over time.
It certainly can consume a wide variety of creatures as well. Probably not the corals directly, but other reef animals.
 
kogle

kogle

Member
Will it show signs of being stung? (kind of like a clownfish would?)
I have noticed the stirred up sand on the corals but the waterflow in there seems to keep them cleaned off. As for swimming room the picture is very deceiving. The tank is two feet deep and well over half of it is open sand. There are also lots of caves under the rocks with open sand.This guy is about half way grown. He's currently about 4 inches acrossed and the research I did on Google shows adult sizes of 6 to 8 inches.
I know the ideal situation for this guy is a lagoon like bang has. Am I working with a less than optimal situation or am I "trying to keep a yellow tang in a 30 gallon tank" :notsure:
Sorry for the tang joke but I couldn't resist...
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
Where did you find an adult size of 8"? I have read somewhere around 15-22? (Fishbase says around 15")
 
kogle

kogle

Member
I looked on fishbase and couldn't find it. Can't remember where I found it the first time but I did just read something that said adult size of 42 cm including tail. That's about 16 inches. Take a look at this side shot of the tank and see if this looks any more do-able than the first pics I posted.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I would also post in the aggressive...it just does quite look like the cortez ray pictured on fishbase. Definitely want to be sure on this one!
 
aztec reef

aztec reef

Active Member
are you talking about the Urobatis Maculatus? does it have dark brown blotches and spots covering its body? The rounded body disc of the Cortez Round Ray has straight front and side margins, and is approximately 1.6 times longer than it is wide.
Still agree that is not a good idea for a reef..
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I had looked up Raja cortezensis which it doesn't look like...I think you're right on the round ray which looks closer!
 
kogle

kogle

Member
Hey Ophiura can you move this over to the Aggressive forum for me?
So you are thinking this might not be a cortez ray? Hmm...
I'll do some research on the round ray and see if that looks like him...
 
kogle

kogle

Member
I just Googled round ray and the pictures don't really look like him/her. The markings are different but the body shape seems to be similar. Let me see if I can crop a picture of it so it shows the ray in detail.
 
kogle

kogle

Member
Here is a picture showing the markings. Sorry I coudn't get a better picture. The actual color of the ray under normal lighting is a little more brown if that helps.
By the way, thanks for everyone's advice so far.
 
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