Well I skimmed thru the posts so I hope I'm not repeating anything.
Hello fellow texan, at the zoo I have managed to get my motoros to breed, not too hard, right?
The adults are kept on regular Texblast, no problems. Do they need substrate? my opinion, no. Babies i believe should be kept on bare glass, they can easily ingest small pieces of sand or gravel.
Also we do have a display in another building with about 12 wild motoros on play sand and they seem to like it, when they burrow its pretty tough to see them sometimes.
I also have a pair of leopoldi, they are kept in a bare bottom tank with no problems. For the display gravel is sort of a given, but when caring for them behind the scenes I prefer no gravel with my rays.
As far as chemistry, we used well water, which is harder than tap, they do fine. Temps are kept around 77 to 80. Basically just feed them well and do plenty of water changes.
I mentioned we are both in Texas, well we have permits to allow us to keep these and other illegal animals, so if you can get them into the state, great, but just so you know, they are technically illegal to own in the state of Texas. It sucks but too many irresponsible people have been dumping their exotics in the US for too long and damn it if Texas doesn't get cold enough to kill them off in the wild.
Good luck! and keep us updated.
