Discus Tank Mates - A Bizarre combination ? ?

[discuspaul]

Anyone have any experience with keeping freshwater sting rays with discus ?
Was in a LFS today & one of the owners, (with a good deal of discus experience - so he says), was trying to sell me a 4" freshwater sting ray, which he said would be compatible with my discus. (He had several of them, similar-sized, in a tank with some tetras.)
I know nothing of this fish, much less as to whether or not it may be a suitable tankmate for discus.

Comments ?
discuspaul

[jball1125]

There are a couple of memebers of the forum who keep both together. Generaly there is no problem but its always good to remember that a sting ray can eat anything that fits in its mouth. They also need lots and lots of space and alot of researching should be done before obtaining one.

[CloudySky]

I've also heard of several people keeping them together successfully - however, there have also been horror stories. Granted that your discus are too large to be eaten, and your tank is big enough to accomodate the adult stingray (at least 8", most likely more), I've also heard of discus turning the tables on the stingray. Recently, there was a local vendor who's marble motoro got both its eyes pecked out by a group of subadult discus. I'm not saying that it's impossible - just be really careful!

[1nvad3r]

Discus will pluck those eyes out and they felt like it. Depends on the temperment of your fishes. I had a tea cup in my tank but i removed it right away because my fishies were pecking at it owell. If i had a bigger tank it would probabaly be ok. GL

[Ibenu]

An experienced seller of many fish on another forum had a 3 inch discus group blind a stingray...

So Its really not a story, it may happen rarely but when it does its such a sad thing..

[Jhhnn]

Young healthy discus are always hungry, and quite bold in groups... If it looks like it might be tasty, they'll try it...

I recall one of Hans' threads where he tried to keep small bushynoses with young discus- He was cursing in Dutch at the results, iirc...