Feeding Your Pet Stingray - The Essentials of Maintaining a Varied Diet

Stingrays will eat a wide variety of foods. Maintaining a varied diet is extremely important in captive animals, as monocultural diets incur a risk of nutritional deficiencies. Stingrays are very active, and should be fed at least once a day, preferably twice or even three times daily. The daily diet can be varied in order to create some environmental enrichment as well as balanced nutrition for the rays.

First Foods
First foods for newly acquired rays should be blackworms or tubifex worms. These foods seem to be the most readily accepted, and are small enough to be inadvertently ingested either by mouth or through the spiracle, thereby giving the ray an opportunity to taste these possibly unfamiliar foods by chance. Foods that have been used for very small specimens, such as the teacup rays, are small insect larvae such as mosquito larvae, small shrimp known as ghost shrimp or glass shrimp, live adult brine shrimp, and blackworms. Chitinous foods such as shrimp provide less nutritional value than do soft-bodied foods, and so should not be used as sole food items.

The best way to be certain that your new stingray is feeding is to watch the spiracles as the ray passes over food on the bottom of the tank. If it is eating, you will see the spiracles opening and closing rapidly, or fluttering, as the food is ingested and water is passed from the mouth and out the spiracles. Once you observe a newly acquired ray readily feeding on black-worms or redworms introduce finely chopped night crawlers in small quantities. Once stingrays recognize these as food, most will readily eat them. Later, experiment with other types of food.

Types of Food

Live Foods
Feed live foods, including blackworms or tubifex worms, in quantities adequate to allow a small amount to be left in the tank so the rays can browse later. However, when cleaning the substrate, note whether a significant amount of living worms is present; blackworms and tubifex worms will colonize the substrate if not eaten and add to the nitrogenous waste production in the aquarium.

Nonlive, Nonaquatic Foods
Chopped earthworms, redworms, or night crawlers and any nonlive, nonaquatic foods should be fed in smaller quantities to prevent any overlooked food from decomposing in the tank. Keep in mind that stingrays have relatively small mouths-a 10-inch (25-cm) ray may have a mouth that is 1/2 to 3/4 inch (13 to 19 mm) wide, so chopped food items must be small enough to be eaten easily. If a ray ingests a piece of food and repeatedly spits it out and ingests it again, this usually indicates that the particle is too large. Some ray species, such as antenna rays, have extremely small mouths relative to their size.

Once acclimated, rays often develop techniques for eating larger pieces of food; for example, newly imported rays may have difficulty consuming even small chopped pieces of night crawlers. Eventually, however, they learn to eat an entire worm by sucking it into their oral cavity without chewing. Newly acquired rays also often ignore feeder goldfish but they quickly learn to chase down and consume feeders, even learning where they hide in the tank.

Commercially Prepared Foods
Stingrays may learn to eat other unfamiliar foods such as brine shrimp, pellet foods, or other commercially prepared foods. While there is probably no harm in offering these foods to rays, it is best to use fresh, live, or frozen foods as the dietary staple. Although stingrays often do not initially accept frozen or other nonliving foods, they may soon learn to eat these foods after they have been acclimated. A benefit of frozen foods is that they are less likely than live foods to introduce diseases or parasites.

Hand-feeding

Occasionally, a well-acclimated specimen will fail to gain weight, even though you are offering enough food. Several things may cause this problem; the most likely possibility is that it is not competing efficiently for food against other fish in the aquarium, or it may have a parasitic infestation. Stingrays occasionally do not seem to learn where foods can be found during feeding times, and are always in the wrong part of the tank during those times. In these cases, it is helpful to hand-feed such specimens. By this I do not mean feeding with your hands. Although some aquarists do this with stingrays, I do not recommend it because of the possibility of being accidentally stung. Remember that stingrays are wild animals, and no matter how accustomed your specimens become to your presence, it is impossible to always accurately predict their response to humans. Instead, you should always perform the hand-feeding of specimens with long forceps or a similar instrument. Stingrays generally avoid metal objects and appear to be frightened by metal; however, because they can sense metal, they will quickly learn that when there is a metal object in the aquarium, food is being offered. In this way, you can teach your stingray to feed directly from forceps, and selectively feed it more food.

Simply hold a night crawler (or a piece of night crawler) in the forceps, and hold the worm in the aquarium so that the ray can touch it with its fin. It should eat the worm immediately. After a few feedings in this manner, allow the forceps to touch the ray while it is eating the worm. It will quickly learn to associate the forceps with feeding and soon you will find that the ray will pounce on the forceps as soon as it touches it, eagerly looking for a treat!

How Much and How Often

The key to having well-fed stingrays in your aquarium is providing plenty of food. Unlike most fish that swim quietly between feedings, stingrays search constantly for food, looking under and around tank ornaments, moving driftwood, rocks, filters, and even other fish! This high activity level translates to a high metabolic rate, which means that while searching for food rays continue to burn energy. If they use up energy looking for food, but do not find any, they will lose weight. To compensate for this loss of energy, it is essential to provide adequate food. I cannot stress this enough. Hobbyists sometimes tell me that they feed their rays three times weekly, thinking that this is adequate. Stingrays should be fed at least twice, and usually three times, daily. In spite of these frequent feedings, rays will still constantly look for food between feedings!

When feeding significant quantities of live feeder goldfish, it is wise to add vitamin B1 to the feeder supply. Goldfish contain the enzyme thiaminase, which destroys thiamin, or vitamin B1, and this vitamin must be replenished. It should be your practice to add one 50-mg tablet to each 500 gallons (1893 L) of water every two weeks. You can add the tablets directly to the sump of the wet-dry filter; or as an alternative, the tablets can be added directly to the tank.

Brendon Turner maintains The Animal Gazette - a weekly edition of helpful articles for pet owners. Visit AnimalGazette.com for information about cats, dog breeds and tropical fish.

---

Frustrated Over High Veterinarian Bills?

Over the past 30 years we have learned so much... Read More

Why the Heck Would You Have a Pet Snake (or lizard, crocodile, monitor, frog, turtle etc)?

This is a question that has been asked of me... Read More

Dog Safety: How to Keep Your Pups Safe From Loss or Theft

According to the American Humane Society, just 15% of dogs... Read More

Is Dog Obedience School for You?

Are you thinking about dog obedience school? Do you know... Read More

How I Get More Training Done On My Horses In 1/2 The Time

Here's a simple way... to help your horse learn twice... Read More

How To Protect Your Pets From Fleas And Ticks

Fleas are wingless, blood-sucking insects that feed on dog, cats,... Read More

Crate Training Your Puppy

Teaching your puppy crate training is the first and best... Read More

Good Dog Health and Happiness For Charlie

Our Charlie's dog health was a very important issue to... Read More

Protect Your Pets From The Pound

Pets are people, too. At least, that's the way they... Read More

Our Childrens Story

One we must regrettably share with our children for they... Read More

So are you ready for a Boxer Dog?...

An easier and more pleasant journey with your chosen Boxer... Read More

Tips & Guide To Looking For A Good Dog Trainer

Dog training is definitely not rocket science and is easier... Read More

Setting Up A New Aquarium

Location of your aquariumSo, you bought your very first fish... Read More

Lets Get Clear On Proper Dog Care

Whether you're a new dog owner or have had dogs... Read More

How Intelligent is Your Dog

It is entirely normal to look for signs of intelligence... Read More

Owning a Wild or Exotic Cat; Information, Laws, and Advice

Have you ever dreamed of living with a bobcat or... Read More

Mabeke: Gorilla Teacher

Mabeke is a young gorilla who was born in captivity... Read More

What is It About Horses and Young Girls?

In a world of computer games, the Internet and shopping... Read More

The Lowdown on Dog Vaccinations

Over the last 20 years, vaccinations have generally been started... Read More

How To Stop Your Cat Spraying

The cat backs up to the door, lifts the tail... Read More

5 Common Grooming Mistakes Made by Dog Owners

1. Clipping the quick when cutting nails.Don't be in a... Read More

Raw Feed? Are You Joking?

Let's think about this for a minute: God did not... Read More

You Should Teach Your Puppy Proper Chewing Behavior

As much as you may love your cute, new puppy,... Read More

Dog Training Book ? Why Buy One? When Everything is Free Online!

I'm a dog lover who believes that every dog owners... Read More

Train Your Buddy To ?Walk? & ?Dance? - Warning: Not All Dogs Can Do It!

Standing and walking on the hind legs are tricks that... Read More

How To Save Money By Testing For Feline UTI Yourself

Do you want to save money, anxiety for your kitty,... Read More

Analysis of Cat Behavior

The most important thing to remember in analyzing the behavior... Read More

Dog Tricks: Understanding Your Dogs Capabilities Before You Teach Buddy New Tricks

The performing of dog tricks, while not a necessary part... Read More

How to Build a Dog House for Your Puppy

So you'd like to know how to build a dog... Read More

Benny Comes Back!

This has been one of the most rewarding adventures I... Read More

Boxers Make Great Family Dogs

A breed of dog called a Boxer is very family-oriented... Read More

Is A Boxer Dog The Right Pet For You?

Having a boxer dog as a pet, although low-maintenance, require... Read More

Thats No Paris Hilton! An Overview of Dog Obedience Training Videos

Mention the word "video" and different people would come up... Read More