# Sting Rays & Plecos.



## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

i am wondering if it would be safe to mix BN plecos with sting ray in the same tank.
any ones experiances and or opinions welcome.


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## skynoch (Jun 4, 2010)

Ya you can unless your ray is quite larger then the ray may kill the pleco


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## budahrox (Apr 21, 2010)

I've heard that it may be risky as plecos like to suck on the rays slimecoat.
Whether that includes BN, I'm not sure. Don't think I'd risk it though.
I'm sure Charles will ring in with the right answer soon. 
Cheers!!


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## skynoch (Jun 4, 2010)

BN are one of the safe ones


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Charles told me that plecos and rays are a bad mix for the exact reason budahrox stated, that the pleco will try to occupy the same space as the ray and some will suck on its back.


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## snow (Apr 21, 2010)

Listen to skynoch he knows what he's talking about when it comes to rays.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

We have a customer that his bristlenose at 3" or so was sucking on a marble motoro at 8". After he removed the bristlenose, the wound disappear and no more problem.

It all depends on fish. I have seen cases that work, and cases that doesn't...


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## kookus (Apr 23, 2010)

i would be more worried that the ray would eat the plec. my motoro is a very aggressive eater.


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## CanadaPleco (May 13, 2010)

Don't do it!!! I have had plecos eat a few rays and they were very aggressive eaters too. I will NEVER keep any kind of pleco with a ray again.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

I will never keep plecos with slow moving fish or anything that stays on the bottom. 

I found a hole on my FRT's chest and the only thing that could make it was my L91's. Because of that I will never keep any kind of pleco with my FRT or future rays. 

I've turned to flagtails to do a clean up job for algae in my tank.


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## stratos (Apr 21, 2010)

Flagtails are no guarantee either; I know someone whose flagtail sucked on the back of his ray all the time so that the ray stopped eating and got an infection. The flagtail had to go.

I know someone else whose rays grabbed the flagtail, pinned it against the glass, and sucked its eyeballs out.


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

stratos said:


> Flagtails are no guarantee either; I know someone whose flagtail sucked on the back of his ray all the time so that the ray stopped eating and got an infection. The flagtail had to go.
> 
> I know someone else whose rays grabbed the flagtail, pinned it against the glass, and sucked its eyeballs out.


after reading this i wonder if my 14+inch flagtail didn't kill my other ray.


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## jkam (Apr 21, 2010)

For now I choose flagtail because it won't do anything to my FRT. I'll have to be cautious when I decide on rays.


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## skynoch (Jun 4, 2010)

It would be very rare for a bristlenose to suck on a ray unless it was way underfed or newly aquired and still needs to put back on weight from after shipping. For most ray keepers there is never a problem. There are also other plecos that can work with rays and some only at differet stages in there's or the ray's life. Flagtails on the other hand can be very risky as it can kill a ray overnight, feed the ray and flagtail very well when first introducing them together and then it's still a risk.


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## snow (Apr 21, 2010)

Adz1 said:


> after reading this i wonder if my 14+inch flagtail didn't kill my other ray.


Was your stingrays disk all white or mostly white when you found it?


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

I think if you get driftwood in the tank, your bnp will hang out in there. that could help, but regardless still risky


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