ABOUT US

Fresh Water Stingrays in South Africa 

Hello from the Ray Fever Team!

So, you’d like to know a bit (or a lot) more about our business and what we do… let’s DIVE right in!

Where it all began

The interest in keeping, displaying and breeding rays has always been there. However, actually keeping freshwater stingrays as a hobby in South Africa has been virtually non-existent up until very recently. Fresh Water Stingrays in South Africa has now kicked off with us as a local breeder. 

This is due to quite a few factors, namely:

• Sporadic and/or limited availability of stock.
• Rays were an expensive purchase.
• They have a high mortality rate and are difficult to keep alive.
• Maintenance and upkeep costs were high.
• The “legal status” of rays in the country limited purchases even further.
• Rays that were imported were usually poor quality and sickly.

A lot has changed since I began my journey (almost 30 years ago, come to think about it) and even though these factors were daunting, they didn’t keep me fro pursuing this incredibly rewarding hobby over the years.

Starting with wild-caught rays from Brazil, I moved on to the wild-caught South East Asian Himantura genus of stingrays – a beautiful but challenging animal if there ever was one! Later, I moved onto pure-bred pairs of South American stingrays from a reputable fish farm in Asia, learning about breeding as I went along. In between all of this, I also chose to improve my knowledge of other marine species, working with several different sharks and marine stingrays as well.

Through all of this, I found mixed results and success rates across the board of keeping rays in South Africa.

The fellowship of the rays

Ensuring that we had everything and anything necessary for this to work we became on a small scale (including adequate housing, filtration, water quality and food), we were ready for our first rays! The new additions came from homes with grossly inadequate and unhealthy conditions, and we were able to improve their health dramatically over a short period of time. Within a year our collection had grown to over 30 rays – either bought from pet shops or rescued from poorly equipped homes. This is definitely NOT the best way to obtain rays, though… take it from us!

And this is why we do what we do.

Need more info – Contact us on info@rayfever.com