Change of substrate, change of colour

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steve_b

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 2, 2009
279
1
48
Staffordshire, UK
At the end of last week I changed the substrate in my tank from partially gravelled and black bare bottom to completely covering the base with BD sand. I have noticed quite a big change in my male marble, his base has become much lighter. The female has lightened slightly but nowhere near as much as the male.

Male before


Male Now


Female Before


Female Now



 
i cant see the second male pic but the pattern on the female looks the same although slightly lighter. do they look lighter in person or is the camera picking out lighter tones ?

the substrate is an interesting topic and i tried a light substrate years ago but i never found it beneficial myself with the ray i tried it with at the time. the pictures were obviously lighter but i feel the only real way to tell is to take the rays out and snap them in a poly box to see how much the rays themselves have changed without the backgrounds playing a part in the view/photo.

i know some successful breeders with rays that have very nice patterns who keep them on gravel and others with bare bottom black tanks also with great markings. so perhaps the change causes stress which lightens the rays up which could lead to people thinking that the substrate has had a big impact, which it has but maybe not in the way they intended.

i beleived too for a long time that the marbles pattern was dependent on the substrate and whilst i cant rule it out i do have a pic of two rays ( of different parents ) that were kept together from being very small pups until i recently got rid of one.

they were first in a gravel bottom tank and then moved to a black bottomed tank together and at the same time but with previous beliefs about substrate i was suprised they were both always so different.

Untitled smaller.png

it will be interesting to see how they go on in the months to come either way but i expect it will only raise more questions ( for me at least :D ) .

good luck and nice rays :-P

Untitled smaller.png
 
They are looking so much better Steve. Still need to see more marbling coming through, the male has fantastic spotting, he is very impressive with or without marbling.

Interesting comparison, its a huge change for the better regarding base colour.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

The male slowly seems to be getting even lighter but the female is remaining darker.

Will be interesting to see if she stays that way or if she will start to lighten her base colour over time

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it will be very interesting to see if the substrate has any effect on the marbling of the ray, so i look forward to the updates.
the base colour. well it seems to have lighter colour but will it last? will it change ? time will tell i guess but marbles seem to be a mystery.

good luck ;)
 
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