My rays that have been kept on bare bottom for over a year and a half have started to show greater muscular development more to the outer disc and rear than my other rays have. I also notice the females just suction down to the bottom more so the males can't get a bite on the females disc allowing them to get in a better postion for breeding. I'm not sure if this is a learned habit or they are able to do this because of the greater muscle mass.
Sand or bare bottom
- Thread starter speedo
- Start date
i would emagine they do it in the wild too dude.it would be much harder to lift a ray off a muddy bottom than a glass or tiled bottom? my females are masters of this.if the female is bigger than the male good luck on a bare smooth bottom.like skynoch says they are like a suction cup i witness this everyday in my one tiled tank.
Since when did it become hard to keep a sand tank?
Just pick sand that is 0.8-1.2 mm. I wont go anywhere and it looks fantastic.
Also, I have never had to siphon my tank. Just get enough flow.
Totally agree.. Sand tanks are not any harder to keep in my opinion than bar bottom. I have both and have no extra work in my sand tank to make sure its maintained. I never vacume my sand.. I have a powerhead that blows thru the tank. The rays are always mixing up the sand when moving, playing or searching for whatever. The powerhead helps keep any thing off the surface of the sand as well as keeps the water moving so the filters can pick up anything that may need to be filtered out.
If you keep your intakes at least 4" above the sand, this helps keep any sand out of the filter itself. And use a sand that is heavy enough to stay down as well as fine enough not to scratch the rays underside. Ive used anywere from black aquarium sand in my tanks to play sand you buy at Lowes.. never had any problem with either type..
i think their is a big misconception.somewhere over they last few years i have been hearing that sand hold bad bacteria???? i dont know how anybody could prove this cause i also have sand and bare bottom and i dont think i have ever cleaned the sand since 2004 ????
but we could be wrong maybe it does???
but we could be wrong maybe it does???
It will only hold bad things if the sand is too deep and never aggitated creating an anaerobic enviroment which can cause pockets of gas
rays prob do have more mussel if kept on bare bottom as they have to work twice as hard to move as its like they are ice skating and burning off more food which is not such a good thing unless you want a ray that looks like its on steroids
I have a tiled tank, but putting a 350gal together and I am going to goto the sand. I agree with t1
lol, well doesn't look like a ray on roids but just structured different. Some may like the look more.
