Reproductive cycle, nutrition and growth of captive blue spotted stingray, Dasyatis kuhlii (Dasyatidae)

M. Janse, J.W. Schrama

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

At Burgers' Ocean 7 male and 3 female blue spotted stingrays, Dasyatis kuhlii were born over a period of 4.5 years. This paper describes the experiences of the captive breeding results of this species. The first two young died within 2 days of birth. One of them had an internal yolk sac, which may feed the young in the first few days. The other eight animals started to feed after 4 to 9 days on a variety of food types. Birth size of the young increased with increasing age of the parents. Mating occurred directly after parturition, so no seasonality could be defined. Gestation length ranged between 138 and 169 days, with a mean of 144.9±9.0 days (N = 11). Litter size was one, possibly caused by only one active ovarium. Sexual maturity of the two parent animals is approximately 3.5 years. The average feeding rations for the adults ranged between 10.1% BW week-1 (131 kcal kg BW-1 week-1) and 11.3% BW week-1 (172 kcal kg BW-1 week-1), with a feeding frequency of 4 times per week. The relationship between body weight (BW) and wingspan (WS) is given as BW = 3.6 × 10-5* WS2.940 (R2 = 0.9645; N = 45) (Received December 10 2007) (Accepted April 17 2009) (Online publication August 06 2009)
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)353-360
JournalJournal of the Marine Biological Association of The United Kingdom
Volume90
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Keywords

  • florida coastal lagoons
  • atlantic stingray
  • scyliorhinus-canicula
  • mating-behavior
  • shark
  • ray
  • elasmobranchii
  • chrysonota
  • biology
  • sabina

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