Can gravel color affect fish color?

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Lady*J*

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Hi,

I just want to know if getting lighter or darker (or colored)gravel affects the vividness of a fish's coloring. My gravel in my 75g right now is white mixed with natural colored gravel, but the overall look is very light. Should I change it to all brown or even darker? I really want my Synspilum (Peaches) to show more of her (I think its a 'her') colors. It's about 4-5 inches long now with nice vivid black areas on the underside and near tail, but the other colors (pink, gold, blue) are washed out. Also, is there any special hood lighting that enhances fish colors?

Thanks!
 
what type of food do you feed peaches right now? wardley makes a color enhancing flake food that really brings out the colors in cichlids. brought out blue on my buttikoferi. he is absolutely gorgeous with the bright blue edging on his finnage and mouth.

there are also color enhancing bulbs available.price depends on the type of bulb you have.

blue gravel does bring out the color of fish. darker backgrounds also help.

semper fi
 
when i had my 10 gallon i had white gravel .......not too much for coulor...so when i got my 20 i put black gravel and the neons brightened 150% darker backround and gravel brings out briht colors (or gives the illusion)
 
You need to have some contrast. MAybe a dark/black background, a white light neon tube and maybe white sand to reflect some light and contrast against the fish's colour? Worked for me. My background is blue.
 
Hi Lady*J*

Yes the colour of gravel will affect the colour of your fish. A light coloured tank will make the fish loose colour. A dark tank will bring out the full colour of your fish.

Dolphin :teacher:
 
Thanks everyone! My next project will be gradually changing to a darker gravel. :thumbs:
 
Definitely go with black substrate. I made the mistake with my last aquarium and purchased a Seachem "Dark" - turns out it's dark brown - looks terrible against the color of my fish. Should I ever have the need to clean out the entire tank, the substrate will be changed to black - it by far brings out the colors in the fish. I have a black background as well in my other tanks and what you see are the FISH not the substrate and the background. Just remember to rinse, rinse and rinse black substrates or you'll be fighting a lot of cloudiness. That said the Seachem brown called "dark" had the worst issues - I think I rinsed about 10 times before I got clear water.
 
Darker gravel definitely makes their colors pop more. may cherry shrimp were in a tank with light blue gravel. When I moved them to a larger tank. I used dark blue gravel and they reddened up a great deal.
 

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