Pup red on bottom

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 24, 2010
1,259
9
38
Missouri
OK, not a newbie, but have a newbie question.
I have a 5 1/4" Motoro pup that I got about a month ago or less.
I had him in a 65 gallon sand bottom tank (play sand) but moved him two days ago to his 30x30 tank.
All water is reading rt.
ph - 7.8
ammonia - 0
nitirite - 0
nitrate - 5.0 ppm

This is a bare bottom tank, no substrate.
I know a pink is normal, but he is alot more red than pink.
Could this be because he was moved into a new tank and the water may be somewhat different than the last tank he was in. I acclimated him before the move. Its been two days. Ill try and get a pic when he comes up the side of the tank again.
There is nothing else in the tank except a bubbleer. Heater is a smart heater, so he cant get burned..

Any ideas why he is red.
 
I have never took the plunge and bought a ray yet but I have read quite a bit because I am going to get a pair soon.
Ammonia will cause red/ dark pink irratation but with your water testing at 0 that rules that out.
I have read that course grades of sand can cause irration , like I said I haven't kept rays and actually never used sand as substrate before so I really don't know what grade of sand play sand is ...

but since your ammonia is at 0 I would say it is probably something from the first tank she was in , it should start to lighten up in the new barebottom tank and eventually turn back to white , actually you should prob see it lighten within the next 3-4 days , if the redness was caused by the substrate ...

Other then what I mentioned haven't heard of anything else that causes a skin irration the way you described.. Hope this helps but I am still a newb and trieing to learn about them :)
 
Pic's finally

Like I said, I know some pink is normal, but to me, he seems a little red and more than he should be.
Maybe its just me and its been awhile since Ive had pups this size, so Im not use to seeing it.
Levels are normal in the tank, so I know its not ammonia. He is eating fine and moving around good. Nothing in the tank to scratch him.

let me know what you think..

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ok, thanks. Like I said, its been awhile since Ive had pups this size and guess Im not use to seeing it that red.
I did notice thought the heat was up to 82.5. I keep my ray tanks around 79-80 deg. Looks like the heater is bad. I have it set on 78 and its keeping the tank at 82.5
I unplugged it and the temp is starting to drop slowly. So that had to be the cause of the heat in the tank and maybe for the little extra red on him.
 
Looks normal.
 
The only thing I see that looks strange is the lack of the normal birth mark where the egg sack falls off :)

He has a very clean bottom and looks healthy to me
 
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