BGK & Stingray....

[roper930]

I don't know how many people here know about rays, but I'll take a shot and see if anyone knows the answer to my question....Can a Black Ghost Knife & Ray be in the same tank? As far as temperments I know they'll be fine together, but since they each use types of electrical sensing, will they bother eachother at all? I don't want to hurt, confuse or stress out either one as they are my 2 most favorite fishies! I know you're not supposed to keep more than one electrical fish in a tank, but since these two use different types, I just wasn't sure.

Anyone know??!

Beth

 

[FishStick]

Are you talking about the stingrays you find in the ocean?! If so, im sorry to say that you will never be able to keep the two together, as BGKs are freshwater fish, and stingrays are saltwater...also, a sting ray would require a *very* large aquarium.

Let me know if im wrong though...are you reffering to a freshwater stingray?

-fs

 

[roper930]

Yes, it's a freshwater ray.

 

[Anton Wernher]

I'm pretty sure he is refering to freshwater rays. I have seen these two fish(not sure what species of stingray) kept together and they seemed to be fine. Granted I am not well versed with electomagnetic sensing/emmitting fish I would assume that they have some sort of mechanism to filter out noise from other species or other fish of the same species. We need one of the ray(they don't emmit anything do they?) or knife fish experts to chime in. TnCgal??

 

[JamisonBWolsh]

I have seen fw stingrays for sale at the store for less then $100. They seem like a nice fish to have. You do need to have sand. I do not know much about them. If they use an eletrical field (im not sure if they do), then they will have a problem. Its like mixing an elephant nose and a bgk. One will kill the other. Unless the tank is big enough...

 

[TnCgal]

Hi y'all. No, rays don't emit anything and I have seen those two species kept together without any problems.

One peice of advice about shopping for rays... be extra careful of the kind that you buy because some of them get enormous. I was lucky enough to get the teacup variety and he is staying nice and small in my 90g. Any other kind and you will be looking at at least a 12-24 inch radius depending on the type.

Hope this helps !

 

[Anton Wernher]

Originally posted by JamisonBWolsh
Its like mixing an elephant nose and a bgk. One will kill the other. Unless the tank is big enough...

I am interested to know why this is...

 

[roper930]

Just as a note, teacups are not a specific "species" of ray, it's just a generic name for any baby ray or "pup". Even the smallest rays get up to 12", but that could take awhile depending on the species and their environment...
All I know regarding the electrical senses is that the BGK emits pulses for navigation, communication & feeding. Rays are particularly sensitive to such things so I've heard...They use some kind of similar sensing (I wanna say something like electro-static or something...)to detect food that is buried in the sand.

Beth

 

[Anton Wernher]

I thought knifefish were wave emitting fish (which I believe have the ability to change frequency ) where as mormyrids had pluse type emmissions. (I am going on memory of a conversation that is about 2 years old with a fish bio prof. from UNC )

 

[JamisonBWolsh]

Originally posted by Anton Wernher


I am interested to know why this is...

Why? because the 2 electrical fields will intermingle and confuse the fish. They use it to find food and locations. Both fish are blind (well the eyesight for the elephant nose is VERY poor, ghost is blind I think?)
Anyways, they will search each other out and kill each other. IN such a small tank (anything less then 60 gallons) they cannot tolerate that. IM not into the scientific analysis, maybe Tncgal can help?