Rolled or not?

[danotaylor]

This guy is Scooter, my BD hybrid male. His disc is about 12”across and he’s about 2.5” years old. As a new keeper of rays I have a lot to learn. Yesterday I read the term “fully rolled” for the first time. I understand now that it means the male is mature and able to breed.
Here’s a pic of my guy & the tip of each of Scooters calipers. My question is, do the small openings at the distal tips mean he is “rolled” as yet?
Cheers.
Danny

 

[Abominus]

@spotfin
@wednesday13

 

[born2lovefish]

He’s rolled and should be ready to breed.

 

[tlindsey]

@danotaylor that is a beautiful stingray.

 

[wednesday13]

This guy is Scooter, my BD hybrid male. His disc is about 12”across and he’s about 2.5” years old. As a new keeper of rays I have a lot to learn. Yesterday I read the term “fully rolled” for the first time. I understand now that it means the male is mature and able to breed.
Here’s a pic of my guy & the tip of each of Scooters calipers. My question is, do the small openings at the distal tips mean he is “rolled” as yet?
Cheers.
Danny

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Looks like hes ready to go… kinda looks like the one next to it has been chewed on already. Keep an eye out for any white patches, bite marks and chunks missing on ur females. Males can be relentless and need to be divided off at times to relive stress on the girls. Rays are hardy, they can take quite a bit of abuse, but u gotta b in control of the situation if the males wont stop. Ive had males about kill each other over night. Ive also had females chew on each other pretty bad. Prego females get pretty bitey and ornery. Id work on making a divider in case u need to put it in at any time unexpectedly. Plastic baby gates can work depending on the height of ur tank. Had a 10x3x32” where a baby gate just squeaked in perfectly lol… i think ur tank is similiar size my get lucky.

 

[danotaylor]

Thanks for the reply’s folks, and the helpful info! I appreciate it big time
Let’s gooooooo!!!!!

 

[danotaylor]

Looks like hes ready to go… kinda looks like the one next to it has been chewed on already. Keep an eye out for any white patches, bite marks and chunks missing on ur females. Males can be relentless and need to be divided off at times to relive stress on the girls. Rays are hardy, they can take quite a bit of abuse, but u gotta b in control of the situation if the males wont stop. Ive had males about kill each other over night. Ive also had females chew on each other pretty bad. Prego females get pretty bitey and ornery. Id work on making a divider in case u need to put it in at any time unexpectedly. Plastic baby gates can work depending on the height of ur tank. Had a 10x3x32” where a baby gate just squeaked in perfectly lol… i think ur tank is similiar size my get lucky.

Thanks for the additional info @wednesday13. The brown based female had bite marks when I purchased them 7 weeks ago. Scooter continues to follow her around like a hungry puppy and try to breed her. If she was already pregnant would he give up on trying to breed her? When she swims mid&upper water column she has a distinct bulge in the rear part of her underbelly but no real “hump” to speak of when she’s on the bottom
Do males only show breeding interest in females that are also ready? Scooter pays very little of this persistent attention to my other female. Is that an indication that she is not mature or ready?
Thanks again mate

 

[wednesday13]

Thanks for the additional info @wednesday13. The brown based female had bite marks when I purchased them 7 weeks ago. Scooter continues to follow her around like a hungry puppy and try to breed her. If she was already pregnant would he give up on trying to breed her? When she swims mid&upper water column she has a distinct bulge in the rear part of her underbelly but no real “hump” to speak of when she’s on the bottom
Do males only show breeding interest in females that are also ready? Scooter pays very little of this persistent attention to my other female. Is that an indication that she is not mature or ready?
Thanks again mate

Nope… if she was or is already prego the male will not stop trying to breed. Theres been pups on here born from 2 different fathers in the same batch even lol… When u leave them together the males can stress out the females and make them abort or drop pups early. IME females will hold much longer if there separated off alone.

Just have to keep an eye on them and divide off if/when needed. Ive had males who “played nice” for a few batches of pups then turned sour pestering their mate to abort or drop early. Some people let em go at it 24:7 as well. After seeing what happens when a female births then pretty much gets molested immediately after i started dividing off males and giving the girls a break to recover after birthing.

As for the male resisting from a young female… thats not the case either. Fairly young females can get plugged just the same. Just fewer pups due to their size. They can be particular and pester 1 lady. Other males will go after everything. Again just have to watch and see what happens. Every ray is different and they can change.

gestation is around 130-160 days… longest i had was 186. Usually around 3 months after u see movement on the back. Ull know when u see it. Appetite will increase as well.

 

[danotaylor]

@wednesday13 brutha mate, that info is priceless. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain. I’ll keep a close eye on them for sure. I haven’t noticed any major damage and every now and then when I go down to the basement all 3 are just chilling g in different parts of the tank. It seems just a bit odd that I have never even seen Scooter put the hard moves on the BD hybrid female
Thanks again mate!

 

[wednesday13]

@wednesday13 brutha mate, that info is priceless. Thanks so much for taking the time to explain. I’ll keep a close eye on them for sure. I haven’t noticed any major damage and every now and then when I go down to the basement all 3 are just chilling g in different parts of the tank. It seems just a bit odd that I have never even seen Scooter put the hard moves on the BD hybrid female
Thanks again mate!

I had a few successful batches and never saw the actual “deed” … you’ll know tho, there will be sperm everywhere and youll need to net it out and do a waterchange … can usually see the females plugged also. Good time to set up autodrips if u can. Easy to just bump the drips up when they breed and birth it can be pretty messy.