Updated pics of black stingray

[jcrim]

I posted a while back with these pics of my yellow stingray that turned black in my tank. He is doing great and has maintained his dark color. Some thought that this was actually a cali ray, but I don't think so... when it was pale it looked like a typical yellow. It is wild how camouflaged this guy can make himself, huh?

 

[jcrim]

Check out these shots.

 

[f1shman]

few questions for ya. do you hand feed him? how big is the tank hes in? and do you pet him while you hand feed him?

 

[jcrim]

His temporary home is a 6 ft. long 125 gallon. Soon moving into a 96" 240 gallon. I have only handfed him a couple of times but have never "pet" him. Why?

 

[moraymike]

Perhaps the black substrate had something to do with your ray changes colors??? :notsure:
Nice looking guy, though...

 

[f1shman]

Haha cause I went to this really nice fish store near me today, bout an hour away though so I don't go there that often. They did a ray feeding and they would put a squid up against the wall and then he would eat it and as he was eating the guy pet the bottom of him and the top a little bit. Then he fed the sharks, no petting for them, just used a feeding stick. Then he fed this huge puffer full grown and the puffer let him touch it!! It was really cool how comfortable the fish was with this guy.

 

[ophiura]

Not a problem feeding them by hand. Down here you can find them (well, southern stingrays and sometimes cownose) in a touch tank, and at another facitilty you can pay to feed/pet rays that are, oh, in the 5ft + range :yes: Cool.
That is a nice looking ray. Sigh. If only I had the space and money to keep one of everything I'd like.

 

[f1shman]

Yes, I wonder how expensive it is to make a low lying tank for sting rays compared to like a huge system. Like one of those "touch ones" wide and shallow, wonder what kind of filtration they have.

 

[ophiura]

The one I was in charge of had huge design flaws. In general they are basically like any other tank. This was a large circular tank, waist high, but probably raised up so the actual water depth was only a foot or two (arms reach) maybe 15' or so in diameter. There was an overflow to a large sump system and plumbed off that a biotower (basically a 6' wet dry), sand filter, and large skimmer. There was an incredibly high bioload on the system and had huge design flaws (eg sump, if overfilled, was higher than the tanks and backpressure would overflow the tanks). But actually I don't think it would be too terribly difficult to come up with some sort of system. Would be extremely cool to have :yes: