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This chapter is dedicated to my favorite ray the Potamotrygon Itaituba ( P14 ). The have different behavior then other Potamotrygon species I have and had. They are the most " playful" ray I have ever seen. They fly threw the tank, across the wood and fly down again. This is a awesome sight, you don 't see much of this behavior in other Potamtrygon species, but all the Itaitubas I know show this kind of behavior. Another advantage of these rays is the size they get, the size of an adult Itaituba is 16" this is relatively small compared with other potamotrygon species.
picture: Frank Zijlmans
If you see the picture above you maybe you understand why I love these animals so much, this is a beauty unmatched threw any other species. ( And I know I'm pregedis for saying this but it is the truth ). Look at the difference in spots, also with this species more spots is considered more beautiful ( and most times more expensive ).I recently heard that the P14 with little spot between the bigger ones now are called P 14 Estrella. As you can see they have a massive tail, specially the part close to the disk. Also the tail is shorter then most other species this explains the massive look of it.
Potamotrygon Itaituba ( P14 ) picture: Frank Zijlmans
In the Aqualog books this species is named a P12 a Henlei type ray. Only the difference in the adult disk size is a clear example that this can't be true. A P14 only gets 16 " and not 24 " as an adult Henlei does. The name Itaituba was given to this rays because that's the place where they are transported to Santerem They are caught in Rio Tapajos , were they live together with Pearl rays. The attachment P14 is a name given by traders to specify this specific animal. The P14 in the Aqualog books is an Leopoldie Eclips. But know , when we talk about a P14 , we all know we talk about the animal in the above picture. Personally I think Potamotrygon Franciscus isn't a bat name, but I'm probably the only one with that opinion.
Potamotrygon Itaituba ( P14 ) picture: Frank Zijlmans
Clearly visible on the picture above is the brown color of this ray. This indicates that the ray is not very happy. In my opinion a ray shows his mood , with its color. If he is feeling ok, he has very beautiful colors and pattern , when he is feeling not so good the colors ar lighter and faded. It is just a very little change but visible. I also think that stingrays ( at least the freshwater ones I had ) have poor eye sight. They see something but the most of their actions are done threw , smell and touch ( with their disk ). Did you ever put a new ray in with your existing population, they feel each other not see each other.
As far as I know these animals are never bin bred in captivity. I 've heard of a person in Germany who had an early birth of this species, but not confirmed yet. Maybe in a Asian country it is been done bud not to my knowledge If somebody knows tell me please?
If you click on the button below you see the video I took of a mating attempt of my Itaituba pair. The mating was not successful I'm sorry to say. Bud I have a good feeling that it will be in the future. The video is a .WMV file. So a MS Media Player will do the trick.
At the moment a P14 is more rare then a Pearl ray ( the pearl I will discus in species8 ) . The ray market is fluted at the moment with Pearl rays and hardly any P14. (09-07-2004)