Ocellate River Stingray Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Rounded to oval disc, flattened and pancake-like, typical of freshwater stingrays
• Dark brown to blackish background covered in bold orange-yellow spots (ocelli), each often ringed with a dark halo
• Pattern is highly variable between individuals, ranging from small scattered spots to large blotchy rings
• Thick, muscular tail shorter than the disc width, armed with one or more venomous barbed spines near the base
• Small eyes positioned on top of the disc, with the mouth and gill slits on the pale underside

Common look-alikes

• Other Potamotrygon river stingrays share the disc shape but differ in pattern, such as species with fine reticulated lines or solid dark coloring instead of bold orange ocelli.
• Marine round stingrays found in similar-looking freshwater-adjacent estuaries lack the vivid ringed-spot pattern and live in brackish or salt water, not true rivers.
• Leopard-patterned freshwater stingrays show smaller, more numerous spots without the strong dark halo ring seen on this species.

Where you'll see one

This stingray inhabits slow-moving rivers, tributaries, and floodplain lakes throughout the Amazon and Paraná-Paraguay river basins of South America, usually resting partly buried in sand or mud in shallow water. It is also widely kept in freshwater aquariums due to its striking pattern.