Every unusual person had to hear about such an unusual fish as a stingray. However, not everyone knows that there is an aquarium slope. More precisely, these are wild fish that adapted well for living in aquariums and live in the homes of our compatriots with comfort and safety. Well, for those who decided to have them, it will be very useful to learn more about such pets, so that later they do not encounter unforeseen circumstances.
Appearance
Of course, the main feature due to which aquarium fish stingrays are so attractive to aquarists is their unusual body shape. Accustomed to life at the bottom, they deformed over millions of years of evolution, acquired a completely flat body adjacent to the bottom. The pectoral fins are fused with the head, and the only large protrusion is the tail. And with it you need to be careful. Long and thin, it often contains a nail file that can cause serious injury to a sloppy aquarist.
Dimensions can vary significantly - from 30-40 centimeters to five and even six meters!
The color scheme is very rich. There are both plain (gray, brown, black and others), and multi-colored.
What breed to choose for content?
As mentioned above, some slopes reach truly impressive sizes - up to five meters or more. Of course, it would never occur to anyone to keep such a “fish” at home. To do this, you need an aquarium with a volume of several apartments.
Fortunately, there are many different types of aquarium stingrays. They differ not only in size, but also in other criteria - for example, there are both marine and freshwater. For keeping in the aquarium it is better to give preference to the latter. Still, maintaining a constantly suitable salt balance is a tedious affair. And the number of neighbors for stingrays will be significantly reduced - most aquarium fish are freshwater.
Three breeds are most popular: river slope paratrigon, plesiotrigon and motor. Moreover, the latter is the most common.
These slopes will be a good choice for an experienced aquarist - beginners obviously should not start their practice with breeding such pets. On the one hand, they are not too large - they rarely reach a body length of more than 50 centimeters. On the other hand, all breeds are usually found in rivers or seas in the immediate vicinity of them. Therefore, it is just ordinary, fresh water that is suitable for maintenance. Therefore, unnecessary problems probably will not arise.
What to look for when buying a stingray
Before you get dwarf aquarium stingrays, you need to seriously study each individual. They are usually very expensive, so acquiring sick pets is a very rash decision.
To begin with, it is worth giving preference to fish having a diameter of at least 10 centimeters. Otherwise, there is a risk of acquiring fry, the survival rate of which is not too high. But you should not buy too large ones - adult individuals get used to the change of situation worse.
The fish should look well-fed - this is one of the main indicators of health. At the base, the tail should be thick — about three times thicker than at the tip. If you study the upper surface, you can notice small tubercles near the tail. This is a store of fat. The tubercles should be rounded - this is an indicator of health.
Also on the body should not be discolored or dull patches, plaque and other defects.
An alarming sign is the fungal lesions of the tail - a sign of an unadapted fish that could die soon.
Young stingrays get used to the new aquarium quite quickly and take food a few hours after transplanting with an appetite. If a day has passed, and the fish refuses to feed - this is an alarming signal.
Suitable aquarium for keeping
Knowing what sizes even small stingrays aquarium fish reach, it is very serious to approach the selection of a suitable aquarium. It should be really big - at least 150 liters per fish. For a couple it is better to find an aquarium with a volume of about 400-500 liters, and ideally - more.
Of course, you should abandon the use of screen aquariums. Yes, they look really impressive. But a slightly grown ramp simply cannot turn around here, which will cause stress and, possibly, death. The minimum width must be at least twice the width of an adult ramp.
Therefore, think very seriously before starting such a fish. Can you provide her with comfortable living conditions? Or is it better not to torment the pet and yourself by having less whimsical fish?
How to care for them
Maintaining an aquarium slope is fraught with many difficulties. For example, these guests from tropical countries really do not like cool water. The optimum temperature will be in the range of 28-32 degrees Celsius. Of course, in most apartments and houses it is much colder, especially in winter. Therefore, it is very important to use a sufficiently powerful heater.
But here you need to be careful. Many stingrays, trying to get closer to the heat source, get serious burns about the heater. Most often this happens with young fish. To prevent this from happening, there are two options. The easiest way is to install a protection that does not allow the slopes to get close to the heater. But you can also use a flow heater, which is built into the water filtration system. Yes, it is more complicated and expensive. But you do not have to litter the aquarium with additional protection to provide the fish with a high level of safety.
However, excessive zeal with heating is not worth it. If the water temperature rises to +35 degrees and above, then the amount of oxygen in it is reduced. Most fish in this case rise to the surface, and the stingray lives at the bottom and suffers from it especially badly.
Do not forget about replacing water. About a third of the volume needs to be changed per week - stingrays like fresh water.
It is very important to use a powerful filter. Moreover, it is advisable to install one that is designed for the volume of the aquarium 3-4 times higher than the existing one. Stingrays release a large number of metabolic products and high-quality filtration becomes vital.
Choose the right soil
Very seriously, you should approach the choice of soil. In general, stingrays live perfectly in aquariums with fine and coarse sand, as well as pebbles. But here it is very important that the soil does not have sharp edges. Otherwise, fish floating on the bottom, and in a minute of danger buried in the ground, will regularly receive injuries, which can cause serious illness and even death.
Because of this same feature, it will be necessary to abandon algae growing in the soil - the ramps will simply uproot them constantly. Choose free-floating or plant algae in pots so that the fish do not damage their root system.
How to feed him
If you decide to have stingrays, you will have to think about the correctness of their feeding. After all, these are not guppies or swordsmen who can live their whole lives on dry food (although they will not add such a diet to health and well-being).
To begin with, usually dry food simply floats on the surface, and because of its structure, the ramp, with all the desire, will not be able to collect it. But even falling to the bottom, it will not be of interest to finicky fish.
Complex feeds sold in the store are also not a good choice. The fact is that with constant feeding they are able to disrupt the metabolism of fish, which often leads to their death or, in the best case, a long illness.
Of course, the best choice is fresh food. The most easily mined or bought in our country is a bloodworm or pipe maker. But it must be frozen and thawed before feeding. In this case, the aquarist can be sure that all harmful parasites and infections that are dangerous to the fish died.
A good choice for wealthy fish lovers will be raw shrimp. It is advisable to buy them whole - peeled usually have the worst quality. Having removed the shell by hand, feel free to feed the fish. If the stingrays are still too small to eat whole shrimp meat, it makes sense to finely chop it.
You can diversify the diet and Peruvian squid. Far Eastern will not do. Although it is much cheaper, it is tougher - stingrays often cannot eat them, and if they eat, they are poorly digested.
Sometimes (not more than once or twice a week), the diet should be diversified, giving the skates finely chopped cod or pollock fillet. It contains a large amount of phosphorus, potassium and calcium, which are very important for many fish.
We select suitable neighbors
Any aquarist will agree that a pair of stingrays, even very large ones, on a half-ton aquarium is not a very good solution. Therefore, it is worth launching other fish there to enliven the picture.
Which neighbors are suitable for aquarium slope?
In general, you can run almost any large and medium-sized fish - but not too aggressive. A good choice would be discus, arovan, large barbs, most knives, catfish sharks and bots.
All these fish are not too aggressive (although it is difficult to call barbs especially peaceful), so they will not be delivered with unnecessary problems.
But the small inhabitants of the stingrays may well perceive small neighbors as food. This is worth remembering when choosing the right fish.
Conclusion
On this our article comes to an end. Now you know more about the features of the content of aquarium stingrays - picky, but beautiful and unusual fish. Surely, if it is decided to start them, there will be no unnecessary problems with the content.