discus and stingrays

I have rays and discus together, theyre absolutley superb. Clean water regular changes an absolute must. As are accurate test kits and a good method of recording results. There is nothing more frustrating than having your rays (far more sensitive than discus) go off their feed or stop swimming around and not be able to put your finger on the reason.

I wouldnt keep eels in with rays either. Had a medium sized tyre-track eel that used to mind its own business until the ray showed too much interest - It bit him quite firmly and hung onto his wing. Quite an injury resulted. Completely cleared up now now - but I would consider it a no no.
 
We have a digital monitor for pH, temp, this way we can just walk by the tank and glance at it to make sure everything's ok. I'll make sure to test it with some knowns to make sure that it's working properly. And we'll get test kits for nitrate and ammonia and all that fun stuff.

In the book I read it recommended not using sand because it gets sucked up by the filter, so I think we're going to look around and use a mix of small, smooth gravel and sand.

I've decided to keep the bichir in the 44 gal because I worry about his current small size and I'd definately want to check out the temperment of the ray we end up getting. So far the bichir has shown no aggressive behavior whatsoever but he swims by other fish and brushes up against them occassionally (he seems not to notice the fish when he's on a mission until he's about to run into them so then he quickly moves over and skims past them). And I worry that he'd do this to the rays tail and get stung, in which case I'd be completely heartbroken because I adore the bichir.

Also getting the ray is still in the future, we haven't even started the tank yet. We went to price out the cost of the wood and glass and all that, and we're still doing research to figure out what else we'll need, and how to best build the tank for the ray.

Which reminds me, has anyone bought reverse osmosis machines? And are they very helpful? Are they really complicated to use? And how much did you pay (don't forget to say where you're from so I can do some currency converting :p)? Where I've looked they seem to be around $200 - $300 Canadian.
 
Sorry to bump this, but I'd really like some advice/opinions about RO filters? Are they worth the money? What do people who have them think of them?
 
They very good for planted tanks and if you are after soft acidic water. I would recomend them for water quality(I use them). But they do take ess minerals ect out of the water. They also waste a lot of water and it dose take a long time to make! I could not tell you the price of them you will have to ask someone else.
 
You can use sand and it'll be fine. I use sand in my 29 gallon tank with no problems and actually like the look of it in there.
 
windeindoiel said:
And I was suprised by this as I had heard bichirs liked to eat anything they can, but no, he seems friendly even with everything in the tank. I haven't seen the eel in awhile to be honest but I imagine he's somewhere in the 20 some rocks piled up in the aquarium.
Click to expand...
thats cool, but i wouldnt count on it for long ;) i'd watch him with the eel especially. and ya, eels like to hide.... quite well i might add. my wife and i were sure one of our two zig's had died and vanished somehow. we see our other 3 eels quite a bit lately, and the smallest 4th one had just flat out been missing. but today she finally came out of wherever she was hiding after about 2 weeks... doing just fine, haha.

i also swear i only have 3 banjo cats most of the time, but my wife caught all 4 of them lying together yesterday for the first time since i set up my 130g.
 
ld say that sand is imperative for rays. It looks very good, and a ray when startled will automatically bury itself. A lot of aquarists use bare tanks but I disagree with that practice. Use fine silicate free sand - and check it every few weeks to prevent compaction. We find that burying the ray food in the sand is very stimulting when feeding - if you bury a couple of lumps of food 6-7" apart it stops them from squabbling. Ish. Ok they still fight over it but it seperates them :p .
 
I thought about it and will having 2 overflows in the aquarium stop the sand from being sucked up? Like with that water has to go over the top in order to be filtered, or am I wrong? I don't know much about the technical stuff so I'm really not sure. I just don't want to waste lots of sand by it getting sucked up. The burying the food is a good idea. I was going to use a turkey baster to distribute the food so that everyone gets some, but burying it could be fun to watch too. :)

Also is filtered water soft enough for the stingrays? Lyder was going to buy filtered water instead of the RO filter to fill the tank so it wastes less water. Would this work? Or are the in your sink tap filters ok for this?
 
I've seen a few people keep rays and discus together, and it works well and looks uperb. Mine you make sure it is a big tank, and has plenty of surface area - 200 gallons, when 2 foot deep is about 7 feet by 2 feet which would seem a reasonable starter.
If I was to do such a thing I would probably plumb it into my mains to make large water changes every couple of days eaier, however I'm cheating as I have near perfect tap water. If you don't , you might need to consider th RO/DI option. I do not consider a water softener a very clever option at all as all they do is swap measurable ions for ones you don't measure, which doesn't avoid the problem.
I'd probably try to keep a shoal of black ghosts or similar in there, as well as one or two of the larger fancy plecs. You have plenty of options.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom