Breeding

Breeding Potamotrygon Menchacai

Today 27-04-2008. For the first time in the Netherlands, tiger pups were born. And the good think is 2 batches in 1 week. The owner of this breeding group Nico van der Post is  very proud to finally have succes with these animals. The first batch was 4 animals 3 females and 1 male, the 2 nd batch were 3 animals 2 females and 1 male. The animals are very big when they are born I think one of the biggest pups I have ever seen. The disk size is about 4 1/2 till 5 inches and with the tail , which is very long, the animals are 11 inch long. Enjoy the pictures.

F2 Breeding

Today 12-04-2007 my good friend Richard Ridgway from the UK has managed to breed F2 P14 pups I think this is a first time ever. The mother animal was purchased 2 years ago and was one of my flirts born pups. And one of the first born P14 pups in the world. No we know that a P14 can give pups at a age of 2 years. This  only can be achieved with a excellent program, of nutrition and care, for the animals. Hopefully many pups will follow . The pictures below are from Richard, you see the mother and the 2 female pups.

What you need to know about breeding.

Every fish lover, is going to breed his fish, sooner or later. This can take a few weeks, or a few years, but this time is going to come. People who have breed with rays are still rare. The freshwater stingray is still a rare sight in a living room aquarium, hopefully this is going to change in the near future.

Pregnant Motoro foto: Frank Zijlmans

The thing that triggers stingrays is a big question. With other fish their are a few tricks to get them to mate, but what is the trick with rays. Nobody really knows.  Although I think one of the ingredients in my home made food does the trick. The rays who had this food became pregnant within a half year. This is to much to be an coincidence.

It is important to breed stingrays. The animals are more healthy, no feeding problems, no damage on the fish and so one. And the more stingrays are being breed the less the wildlife population has to suffer. Although the native people rather see them go then come. It is important to do this in a healthy manner so we can track the offspring of these animals and that inbreeding can be prevented. Maybe we have to chip are animals to prevent inbreeding the future will tell. I think that stingrays are in the beginning of their popularity and that the demand only will increase in the years to come.

What do we know of stingray breeding.

• The mating off stingrays is a very aggressive contact. The male will bite the females back viciously as well as the disk edge. When the female is ready she will permit the male to mate her. He will pull his self under the female and will mate her keeping her in a strong hold with his jaws. When the female is not ready to mate she will let the male know . I saw my P14 male being pierced with the stinger of the female just below his eye. The bytes of the male, can damage the female very bad, but these injuries seem to heal very fast. This is a normal thing with the mating of rays so don't be alarmed.
• For serious breeding attempts the female must be bigger then the male, if this is not the case it can led to serious injuries of the female. In this case it is better to separate the animals and try again when the female is at least the same size as the male. When the female is to small she can't defend her self to the aggressive mating attempts of the male. If you see this in your own tank separate them write away, otherwise she can look like the Scobina below. ( Thanks Andreas for your input )

                                P.Scobina foto: Andreas Ochs

   

• In nature rays are ones or twice a year pregnant, this has to do with food supply. At the end of the raining season and begin of the dry season there is food enough for rays. This period is the mating season. The pups are born during the dry season.

• It is the best for the female after 3 litters to give her a resting period. It is hard on the body of the female to be pregnant, and costs a lot of energy. It has occurred that females after a few healthy litters for a reason we don't know gave berth to dead pups. It has occurred also that after a few litters the female died with no explainable reasons. I do not say this are the pregnancies but it is something to think about.
• The water has to be top quality like always with rays, or any other fish for that matter. The temperature is around 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

One of 4 pups foto: Frank Zijlmans

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• I think that when a female is ready to mate she releases some kind of feromoon ( I hope this is a good English word) in the water which tells the male I 'm ready to mate. Needless to say that we talk about adult animals who are completely acclimatized in their environment.
• The male can ( is my own experience and saw it with other rays also) develop his claspers within 3 months. From small closed claspers to, open and big claspers. I think this very rapid grow is triggered under influence of the feromoon of the female.
• The length of the pregnancy varies. There are pregnancies of 100 days known but also of 160 days. Could this be a species difference? I think the length of a pregnancy can be determent after the first nest of pups. After the first birth the male will mate the female this is a accurate date for counting the days. If you have pups on a regally basis the average of these days could be a good estimate In nature this time would be longer because of the less regular feeding times. Because of the good quality of food and the regular feedings the pups in captivity will be bigger and the pregnancy will be shorter then in the wild.
• When the female is pregnant her behavior will change. The eating will be a lot more aggressive and she will also eat a lot more. The female will also gain wait and this starts to show on her back (clearly visible at the pictures). My experience till now (20-10-2004) is that her belly is just as thick as her back.

Pregnant P14 foto: Frank Zijlmans

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• Ones you see the female grow you can expect that she is pregnant. You can be 100% sure when you see the little rays move on the back of the female. When I saw this for the first time with my P14 female I felt a bit warm inside. Especially with the P14 you know that nobody in the world has seen pups of this species. Which makes me very curious what the little ones look like.

• How many pups do they get? This is always a guess, I think it depends on all the things spoken before, water , food end so on. Their are litters known changing from 1 till 11 pups. Peter Lutz a famous ray breeder in Germany has hat a litter of 15 pups. Sadly they all where dead at berth or slightly later. This was with a Leopoldie female who had litters before, at the top of her pregnancy she was 7 " thick.

Below you see a list of people who successfully have breed rays. The list ain 't complete so I ask the people who are on the list to give me ( If you want) the necessary information. Also people who have breed rays who ain 't on the list let me know, so we can see who is breeding what. Any other information on breeding ( If you are willing to share) is welcome also. Andreas thanks for the input on this chapter.

Today 11-12-2004 the first time ever a captive bread Pearl ray is born. And it is a beautiful pup with a lot of spots. Below you see the very flirts picture of this marvelous animal. The proud owner of this animal and the parents is Nico van der Post a breeder in the Netherlands. Nico congratulations.

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   A few new pictures. The Pearl is changing quickly the rings go to the middle of the disk and a lot of more dots are showing on the disk edge. The difference in disk size Pearl  and P14 is reasonable considering their is a 3 weeks age difference. The P14 is 2 cm bigger then the Pearl. Should a P14 grow faster the a Pearl? The future will tell. The material for comparison is coming soon Mister van der Post has a few Pearls pregnant.

A very nice collection of pups 14 Motoro's, 10 Jabuti Pearls en 1 P14 . Not bad for one month.

30-03-2006 At Daniel Wehrli, a well known breeder from Switzerland, pups have bin born from Pearl and Reticulate stingrays. About the last one I want to tell some more. The mother Potamotrygon Reticulate had a disk size of only 6 inch. She had 3 pups with a disk size of 21/2 inch and a total length of 6 inch. It is unbelievable that such a small mother animal can produce 3 pups of that size my compliments. When you compare the Pearl pics with the Reticulate pics you see that the Retics have a very long tale compared to their disk size, is is twice the length of the disk. The pictures below are from Daniel Wehrli the owner and breeder of these beautiful animals.

10-04-2006 On request the parent of the Potamotrygon pups shown below.

The breeding of rays is going very good at the moment. It is impossible to keep the list below punctual. I do not know what I'm going to do with this list.

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