Passive motoro

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Proximus

Proximus

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 13, 2009
408
126
61
Norway
Hi.

I belive i have a problem regarding one of my motoro rays.
I bought two rays for a cuple of months ago and untill now they have eaten well and ben active almost all the time.

But now all of a suddent the female - who has actually been the most active one - is most of the time just laying at the bottom. She does eat the food who land in the area around her, but she is not moving around looking for it! At least not like she did before.

I have noticed that it has appeared something on her stomack. I dont know the English word for it, so ill have to try to explaine it like this; a network of those things that transport blood around the body.

Also she is "flapping" slowly with her disk from time to time... like she is irritated or somthing.

Some tecnical info in case u need it;

- 143 gallon aquarium.
- 2 motoros, 1 Hystrix.
- 81 fahrenheit.
- Two Eheim 1200L/h internal, and one Fluval fx5.
 
Here is a picture of one of the rays. As you can see some vains (found the word now :)) are visual arount the mouth.

Thing is - on the female motoro this is also present on the stomack!

I am not shure if this is normal - if it was like that when i bought her..

CSC_0095.JPG
 
This is bottom view?, through the bottom glass?....if not i have a problem....i cant see anything i´ve seen before in my life except for the sand....:)
Try with some more pictures......clear ones......
Crystal clear water?, cloudy water is related to drastic changes in pH and sometimes to ammonia, do you perform WC as you should?, not too much food?, someone bullying her?, does her look healthy, fat?.

She´s gonna get fine in 5 minutes.....you´ll see
 
Picture taken trough the bottom glass, yes.

I will try to get a photo of her belly- if i get the chance. Problem is that the tank is filled with sand, and there are only one opening - where the water flow have moved the substrate. Lets hope ill have some luck tomorrow..

Water is crystal clear. I preform water changes two or tree times a weak (30-50%). In addition i use a net to pull up waste, as it appear.

I may be feeding too mutch. Usually i give them mussels, bloodworms and ghost shrimp- and i give this up to four times daily. As mutch as they can eat really.

She is in good shape right now.. the "hip bones" are nicely covered in a lot of meat to put it like that. Not skinny at all.

There are no other tank mates, beside the mutch bigger hystrix and the little male motoro. I have not seen any of them pick on her in any way. No physical injuries. Tough i dont know if it culd be going on some kind of psychological terror in there... I guess that culd be possible...(??)
 
Here is a close up of the motoro female.

You can see the blood veins on her belly. And there are also some veins pesent around her mouth. I am almost 100% shure she was completly white at these areas of her body when i bought her- that there were no veins visible what so ever.

DSC_0144.JPG
 
This scares me.

I have observed all the rays closely today, from the bottom of the tank, using a flash light. And it seems that they all are irritated under theyr discs. Slightly reddish in certain areas.

I really hope there are some here who have expreienced this- and that i get some answers. I am afraid i dont have mutch time. The female motoro did NOT eat her blood worms at the 2nd feeding today!

Water parameters are fine and stabile - Ph 7,2 - Nitrit 0 - Nitrate 0.

-----------------------

In lack of other alternatives i have now added Tetra Aquasafe..
 
Maybe the sand is irritating them. What kind of sand is it?
 
Its Råda sand. I useone of the smallest grain sizes. http://www.radasand.com/Product_information/Production. Made in Sweden.

I cant see if there are any sharp edges on the sand.. too small for my eyes.

One thing that culd have somthing to do with this, are the fact that i did lose two retics recently. They all of a sudden turned ill, and died. I culd see simulare signs on them- talking about this reddish areas unde the disc.

But back then i did not have this sand in the tank- only smooth gravel.

Culd it be a bacteria- that now are starting to infect the others? Its is over a week since the retics died. Maby a bit weird that the motoros and the hystrix has not shown sign of sickness earlier then...?


Its a shame that i can write better English. Thakes so long to write these posts, and still... it is difficult for me to discribe things the way i want to!:grinno: I will at least try to take some more pictures tomorrow!
 
I'm still learning too, I just know they say not to use sand with silica in it. Hopefully someone else will have some advice.
 
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