King Henlei Stingray

King Henlei Stingray, Stingrays are relatives of sharks, sawfish, skates and guitarfish, having cartilaginous skeletons rather than true bones. As their name suggests, stingrays have a venomous barb – actually a modified scale – on their tails, which they use as a defense mechanism. Contrary to popular belief, stingrays do not come at you waving their stingers; you have to step on one or SERIOUSLY harass them to be stung. The barbs are shed and replaced by new ones periodically, and discarded spines can be found lying on the bottom of the aquarium. Rays also have “Lorenzian ampullae” located on their heads, which allow them to sense electrical impulses in the water.

What is a King Henlei?

This is just a regional variant of a Potamotrygon henlei (same species); both rays are endemic to the Rio Tocantins in Brazil but are caught from different localities, the King being the more attractive fish that commands a higher price than a normal Henlei. The spots are generally larger, particularly around the perimeter of the disc. These big spots are surrounded by a series of smaller white spots giving the appearance of a crown when viewed from above… hence the name “King”. Some pups will have almost every spot with this kind of pattern, and such fish command very high prices particularly in Japan as well as other parts of Asia. Others like my male will just have a few spots like it, either way when you have King blood within a group you are going to produce quality rays with larger spots, far nicer than most wild imports.

These pups will be second generation from the wild (F2). As mentioned earlier, F2-F3s are what many collectors are striving to have in their collections due to the spots on these pups increasing in size with every generation. Big spots on a black ray is a sight to behold, if these spots are clean and well-spaced out and symmetrical again such a fish will be more highly prized.