Nowadays the popularity of stingrays as a pet animal in the aquarium is increasing. This also makes people interested in breeding them as a hobby. Sometimes this hobby can even turn into a business. For that, it is necessary to identify the male and female. Stingray male vs female can portray a closer look.
To identify the male and female gender of stingrays, claspers play an important role. It is a sex organ of stingray. You can also take a closer look at the size, weight, and shape of the stingray. The female stingray is smaller in size and has a more round figure than the male.
In the mail Stingray, you will find a more defined physical appearance. Clasper is visible from the outlook.
Once you identify the gender of the stingray, you can ensure our breeding proceeds in your aquarium. If you have only one gender, then try and get the other gender as soon as possible.
How To Differentiate Between Male And Female Stingray
It is important to know the gender of the stingray if you are planning to breed the stingray. During the breeding season especially when it is not done by the natural process, you also need to take special care of the female stingray. Here the distinction between the two genera is shown by pointers.
Clasper in Tailbone
Claspers are two string-like body parts that develop on the tail zone of the stingray. Two of the claspers are located on each side of the tail. They look like bone structures, but actually, they are not. They are formed of flesh. These are the sexual organ of stingrays.
Clasper is one of the best ways to distinguish between male and female stingrays. If you look at a stingray, you will find that the male stingray has clasper and the female doesn’t.
But if you turn the stingray you will see claspers in females also but very small in size that is not visible when they are turned around.
The presence of claspers is more visible when the stingray matures with age. Clasper gets elongated and more visible in males and it gets hidden under the curtain of skin in females. When you turn the stingray, you will notice the presence of claspers in females. This will tell you that this started to develop at an early age but stopped when they reached adulthood.
Size of The Stingray
The size of the stingray is another way to distinguish between the genders. If you place two stingrays side by side, you will see that the size of the female stingray is comparatively smaller than the male stingray.
Even if you don’t put the two genders side by side, but you have an idea of what a stingray looks like you can almost get an Idea that it is a male or female. With a larger size, the weight of the male stingray is more than the female one.
Body and Head Shape
The shape of the body in the two genders of stingrays helps a lot in distinguishing between them. When you see a female Stingray you will notice that it has a more oval-shaped body. Whereas the shape of a male Stingray is triangular.
In a female Stingray, you cannot determine the starting and the ending of the head portion of the body. The layout part is quite smoothened. On the other hand, in the case of a male stingray, you can differentiate the head of the stingray quite easily.
There is a bump start where the head begins among the males. The bumpy structure gives a neck vibe to the stingray. It also defines the shape of the head of a stingray. In the male, the head shape is more triangular.
As the neck is defined, it gives a triangular shape. Thus in the male stingray, the head is pointier compared to the female stingray. When you look at a female stingray, you will see that the head is blunt in shape which makes the shape of the body look oval.
You can differentiate between the genders if you have an idea of how their body looks. In short, people look at the neck of the stingray. If you can distinguish where the body ends and the head starts then you are looking at a male stingray. If it is the other way then, you are looking at a female stingray.
Mating Position
During the mating season, there is another way to distinguish the gender of the stingray. If you know that you have two stingrays in your collection then you are bound to see them mating during the season.
Normally in the other species while they’re in the mating position the male tends to go on top of the female. But in the case of stingrays, the table reverses. The female gets on top of the male stingray to mate.
Therefore if it is mating season and you don’t know how to identify the gender of the stingray then you can take the shortcut without taking a look at the physical appearance of the stingray.
Table: A Compact comparison Between Male and Female Stingrays
| Features | Male | Female |
| Clasper | Present | Absent |
| Shape | Triangular | Oval |
| Size | Larger | Smaller |
| Mating position | On the bottom | On the top |
4 Ways To Take Care Of Stingrays During And After Breeding Season
During the mating season, you need to take proper care of stingrays if you want healthy babies. If you want to do the breathing just as a collector then also try to provide a more comfortable environment for stingrays.
Once you identify the gender of your stingray, the next step is to take proper care of them.
Size Of The Aquarium
For proper and healthy breeding you need to provide proper space for the stingray. Depending on which species you have, you might need to provide large tanks. The size may vary from 128 gallon tank to 200 gallon tank.
Stingrays are very active animals. They tend to spend most of their time in the bottom of the tank. Due to their size the width of the tank matters. This means you do not need to worry about the depth of the tank but spend more on the width.
But this doesn’t mean that you don’t need depth. A Stingray generates a lot of feces, you must have enough area for them to accumulate. Otherwise, the amount of ammonia will increase to a dangerous amount.
A larger tank provides more area for mating between the genders. This ensures healthy breeding.
Water Parameters
Water parameters are a very sensitive factor for stingrays, especially in their breeding season. From maintaining a chemical saturation to temperature and pH balance everything plays a significant role.
Stingrays are carnivorous animals which means they produce lots of organic waste after their digestion. As a result, you will find a large amount of ammonia generated in the aquarium. Also the feces friends a lot due to loose binding.
As stingrays are sensitive to ammonia nitrites and nitrates, you need to balance these elements. For Ammonia and nitrites, you need to keep a level of 0 PPM. In the case of nitrate, the highest limit is 10 PPM. Even sometimes to balance the water parameter you will need to change the water more often than you do in your regular aquarium. Whereas for other aquariums 25% change in 2 weeks is usual, in the case of aquariums for stingrays you might need to change 50% of the water weekly.
When you need to balance the temperature and pH remember stingray prefers Mediterranean temperature and keeps the pH on an acidic scale. Keep the temperature between 75 degrees Fahrenheit to 82 degrees Fahrenheit.
At this temperature, the female stingray performs healthy biological development. As a result, breeding gets easier. Once you balance the temperature keep the pH at 6 to 7. The pH must not rise above 7.5 and go below 6.5 in the breeding season.
Depending on which species to have, the salinity of the water might vary. If you have a freshwater stingray then you must ensure a freshwater state. Whereas other species can benefit from the presence of salinity in the water.
Insuring Nutrients For Stingray
As we know stingray is a carnivorous animals therefore it means a proper supply of protein to service properly. The necessity increases if you are targeting the breeding of the species. You can offer the protein to the stingray both alive and dead.
If you are on a budget and don’t want to spend much on food then try to introduce the fishes like carp, tilapia, or catfish. On the other hand, if you have a good budget you can always thrive on providing healthy and good proteins.
Whole raw shrimps, muscles, warms, and scallops are one of the best choices of protein. Stingray loves to have invertebrates occasionally. Therefore you can also provide worms, cricket, or beetles.
Whatever protein you choose to provide, try to provide them with their heads and other organs. In that way, they can obtain more nutrition from the organisms. Just make sure that you are not overfeeding them so that there is less food waste. This way if your stingray species are more sensitive to ammonia it gets easier to control the level.
Choosing The Right Substrate For Your Stingray
Stingray prefers to have a substrate of sand. This allows them to exercise their natural instincts like hunting food or digging. It also works as an exercise field for stingrays.
Also, be careful putting things on your substrate like sharp stones for driftwood. Otherwise, they will cut the flesh of the stingray. Stingrays are very sensitive animals. If they get hurt they will take a longer time to recover. This will definitely interrupt the breathing procedure that you are targeting.
How To Do The Breeding Of Stingray
Breeding Stingray is a very easy procedure. In this whole process, you need to make sure that you have both male and female stingrays in your aquarium. Give them proper space to move and choose a partner.
Once they find their partner they will start communicating with each other in their way. After that provide proper nutrients to the stingray. Especially make sure the female doesn’t lack any nutrients. After providing the food take a closer look if the female Stingray is having any difficulty in feeding.
If there are any difficulties then bright spot feeding or in serious condition take it to an aquatic vet. They will do a proper check and will let you know what is wrong and what to do.
Once the baby stingray appears make sure you can provide a proper environment for your survival. It is always wise not to keep any other aquatic species along with the baby stingray. This reduces the chance of harming the baby’s stingray.
FAQs
Are stingrays aggressive to humans?
Stingrays for the most part aren’t risky — as a matter of fact, they have gained notoriety for being delicate. They frequently tunnel underneath the sand in the shallows and swim in the vast water. Stingrays will typically possibly sting when upset or stepped on by uninformed swimmers. More often than not, you can try not to be stung by a stingray.
What time of day are stingrays most active?
The dynamic following showed that round stingray displayed short developments scattered by 2-4 hr. times of latency and that round stingray development was most prominent around evening time during the ebbing (falling) tide when the water temperature can increase as much as 10 degrees (C) in a somewhat brief timeframe.
What is Stingray’s favorite food?
Stingrays are rapacious and, as most carnivores, they like to eat creatures less than themselves. Specifically, they like to eat creatures that live on or underneath the sand like worms, mollusks, clams, snails, and shrimp. Individual stingrays are little fish and squid.
Do stingrays stay with their babies?
After birth, most adolescent stingrays swim away to begin their lives from their folks. In certain species, for example, the freshwater whip ray (Himantura Chao Phraya), the mother focuses on her young by having them swim with her until they are around 33% of her size.
Why do baby stingrays have legs?
The legs are puzzling. Incidentally, these limbs are called claspers, and they permit guys to mate with females. In this clasp, they go all over so that we can’t resist the urge to burst out in giggling. It really seems to be this child stingray moving for the camera!
Final Words
Identification of stingrays from stingray male vs female is quite easy. For this, you don’t need to take a look at the inner organs. Once the identification is done make sure the breeding is happening. The baby stingray needs a proper environment to grow. Also before the birth of a new stingray, you need to ensure that the mother is getting proper nutrition.
All this procedure is quite easy if you know what you are working on. Give proper space to your stingray and make sure they have proper protein in their diet. Stingray will handle the rest procedure itself.
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