Camo-fish!

[Squirrelbuddies]

I recently set up a 29 gallon tank with black sand and transferred the fish from the 20G to this tank. It looks beautiful!

BUT -- my little cory cats are almost invisible now. They've camoflaged themselves almost perfectly with the sand. They used to be brown with black spots and a black band over their eyes and dorsal fin. Now the brown part is so dark it's almost black!

This is normal, right? Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[NinjaSmurf]

That's what my cories look like, and they did seem to darken when I had them in my tank with black gravel. I had to move them though and the tank they're in now has natural light colored gravel so they have brightened up a bit.

 

[troutfly]

Some fish have the ability to slightly alter there appearence to "match" orr blend in better with their enviroment, especially smaller bottom dwellers so the are less visible to preditors.(In the aquarium they are safe but in the wild, you get my point.) I know when I was breeding Jack Dempsey's, they would change colors to a darker shade when they started their courtship or when they felt threatend after they laid their eggs. I believe it is a natural thing and you might want to add some light media to your current color, maybe that will get your fish to lighten up to reveil themselves.