hi, i want to start by saying that i consider aquaman (richard) a friend.
One of those marbles i think is great, lots of spots, light base loads of marbling coming through and at that size thats what i would expect. i think they either stay as they are or go down hill after about 12" (not confirmed just my thoughts and im currently looking into this).
the other one that has less marbling i would have thought would have much more marbling by this stage/size considering the parents and has similar marbling to rays i have had in the past that ive been told are of a "different type" that will never marble up properly.
another thing you might like to think about is the spotting around your rays disc.
this is also not confirmed but it was suggested some time ago that rays with "individual specific spots" on the outer edge of the disc are likely to be smaller adult size as opposed to those with a "chainlink" pattern.
im not sure this is true but it might be good opertunity to get some data as your rays seem to have this factor that is apparently associated with small rays and it might also affect your decision to keep / sell them. ( if its true ).
for me, substrate is a strange issue. no definite tests have been done and even so how would you do them. from 7-12" rays change alot. is this due to substrate or would they have changed anyhow ?
my opinion regarding your rays is to keep them both on the same substrate and in the same water an see how you get on untill about 12" and let us know how they are then so we all know if substrate makes so much difference.
if they are small and dont grow to 12" then you have a nice small ray
if they get better from now and the pattern gets better then your happy
if they dont get better and dont reflect the suggested quality of the parents then aquaman has already said that this sometimes happens even with high quality rays of all types then he will sort you out.
you dont have anything to loose by waiting a bit. if i were you and i had the space i would hang on just a bit longer. they look like nice light base rays and i think at least one will turn out nice if not both.
good luck and please do keep us updated with them. its good information for marble breeders (im particularly interested) and im sure for richard too to see how these turn out so that we can advise others better and also help our own rays do well/turn out better.
thanks for posting
