True mantilla?

[Andersp90]

Well i guess thats true.

Just looked it up on the internet. looks like they go for sometimes humans too. lol.

It also look like they testbite. if the victim fights back, they pull back. if not, nom nom!

Guess an adult sick and weak ray would be easy pray.

[DavidW]

nom nom indeed!
people eat rays too in some regions....nom nom nom

When you go there be sure to visit the fish market in Belem, it is an amazing sight, fish that you would give an arm to have in your aquarium just waiting to be eaten!

[stingrays1]

This looks like a true mantilla ray to me. I am the one who named the ray "mantilla ray" in my book on freshwater stingrays [published by Aqualog]. It was named 15 years ago after my friend Jose Mantilla who worked for an importer of ornamental fish in Florida, in the US. Jose always called me whenever a new ray was imported.

I believed it to be a variant of P. hystrix, but while I am not sure of that, I do not know of any taxonomic reason for calling it a separate species. One of the primary characteristics is that the markings have a bluish color.

[Lode]

Great to hear your view Richard. Do you know if they are caught in the same area as the hystrix?

[FABIEN]

Little update of Mantillas history:
2 little males pups are born few days ago in JJ's aquarium...
Let the pictures talk...



First one has exactly the same shape than his parents....



Second one looks like a Motoro pup!!!!!!



The Mantilla female has never been in contact whith a Motoro male since more than 18 months....The only other male is a Pearl???
Is it an Hybrid Pearls/Mantillas or Mantilla are just natural hybrids and that's why all the pups don't look the same?

[Lode]

That's indrecible Fabien! Do the tails look simular?

[FABIEN]

Yes Lode, it's very strange... The tails look similar, we have talked about this with the owner of the Mantillas. There are some little "triangles" at the base of the tail. For me, Motoro don't have these marking. I'll try to make pictures of the tails to compare with a pure new born Motoro pup...

[Lode]

Could also be that the mother has been impregnated by two fathers. I recently saw something simular with a falkneri/leopoldi cross.

[FABIEN]

That was our first theory... one pure Mantilla pup and the other one, hybrid... One egg fertilize by the Mantilla and the other one by the Pearl man.

You said, you already had this case? Did you have half of the pups with Leo shape and the others with Falkneri shape?

[Lode]

In case of the Falkneri, 2 looked hybrid (leo/falknberi) and two looked like pure falkneri (shape and pattern).

When you cut open a mature female stingray, they have two uterus'. Don't know if simultanious fertilisation by two males is possible, but looks like it to me. But I'm no biologist, so I'm also just guessing