Ray female curling up - HELP!

Hi

I had this posted in another thread, but new threads tend to get a little more attention so I hope you'll forgive me.

My female started acting weird earlier today, swimming alot at first, but then starting to swim in circles and cannot stay still. I took some pics of what she's been doing to try to show you what I'm dealing with.

pH is 7.8 and nitrates are ~15ppm after a 60-70% water change.

One pose


Another pose (upside down deathcurl?)


From below - As you can see the underside isn't damaged at all



The male is doing fine, and the discus in the tank are great, which should be a testament to the water quality.



What do I do?

Nic;1643476; said:

sounds like a active ray to me...mine used to be all over the place....

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Well she's active alright, but she's keeping those "poses" for some time and just acting all weird. I've had her for 3 weeks, and she hasn't been acting like this before. Maybe I'm just stressing out because those bastards cost me $500, but I got nervous when I read about stingrays doing stationary poses like that being something to worry about and she's looking kinda irritated, like in a bad mood irritated, not scratchy irritated.

She just ate a little shrimp (ok, a bunch, she has a gut after eating it) tho, so maybe she's got a little kick left in her.

I live in Iceland, there's no clorine or other contaminants in the water here. All water changes are from the tap using a python. I don't use stress coat either, water additives are rarely used here. I do the same with my breeding discus and they breed like crazy in this water.

Beun;1643721; said:

I think it's the substrate. Sand or fine gravel is better. This might give skin irritation.

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Could be, but wouldn't I see irritation on the underside of the ray? Like reddish inflammation or something? 1/3 of the tank has fine sand (pool filter), and the rest has this gravel, which is pretty smooth and they don't have any troubles digging themselves in it. I might change the substrate soon tho. BB is a nono for me tho since this tank is in my living room and needs to look nice