Stingray as a pet?

Sting rays can be kept but theyre very difficult and often require a very large aquarium. Their diets usually consist of squid, shrimp, clams, and other foods of that nature. Unless your friends are rather advanced hobbiest their chances are rather slim keeping this thing alive. They’re probably better off putting it back in the ocean where it belongs. As far as legality goes, i dont know, you would have to check with your local fish and wildlife authorities.

If your friends do decide to keep this, it is pretty important they find out exactly what type of ray they have and research all of its needs so that they can properly accommodate for it.

When I still had a “real job” I worked at a natural history museum where we had a sting ray on display in a large salt water tank (500 gallon). They are actually rather bright critters and quickly learn to be hand fed. We used peeled but otherwise whole bait shrimp to feed him.

As @uberbatman says, you would need to check what type of ray it actually is and then find out if it is protected in any way in your state, or if the fact that it has a stinger and venom may make it illegal without a permit.

We had to maintain a number of permits for our collections, some City, some State, and some Federal.

Love the tag. and Be sure whenever around it to be wearing chest protection!

if they do a lot of serious research on it, then it should be okay – though i don’t know how legal that is. i wouldn’t do it myself, as i just don’t think taking an animal from their natural habitat because i want a cool pet is cool at all…but if they make sure they take care of it and don’t neglect it, i guess to each his own (:

@tiffyandthewall there’s quite a few species that are perfectly legal to keep as pets.