There was a discussion here about sand colour and the Corydoras group, and it got me experimenting with matching the substrate to the camouflage of my Corydoras relatives, Scleromystax barbatus. I had them in a tank with white sand.
First, I mixed in dark grey sand to their beige/white sand 15 gallon. They became way more active.
But I want more of them, so I decided to mix black sand into another mostly whitish sand substrate. It's a 40 gallon, filtered by air, and at 21c. Just as they did in the 15, they shifted the black sand to one end of the tank, and largely cleared off the white. It took 24 hours. It was a remarkable feat of sand pushing and remixing. I have DJ catfish, doing remixes!
The filters are homemade, and designed to deliver extra oxygen via the surface. There is no way they could move sand.
These cool cats hang around over the blackish sand, and sit still on it, as @Byron 's great comments suggested they would. I know the suggestion in that thread was for browner sand, but that was for brown/beige Corydoras. Since these barbatus are mostly black in colouration, especially from above, I took the principle to be the need to match to the camouflage of the fish. They like the dark and mottled patches in the tank, which fits with their colours. But they swim over the slightly finer white sand, and feed over it. They move fast at that end of the tank.
I had created a lovely mottled mosaic over the whole bottom of the long tank, and they clearly thought my work was second-rate.
Right now, they are busy over the dark section they created, engaging in pre-spawning behaviour. I hope that this time, they are finally old enough to give me the possibility of a tank full of these beauties.
I've already planned the gravel out...
First, I mixed in dark grey sand to their beige/white sand 15 gallon. They became way more active.
But I want more of them, so I decided to mix black sand into another mostly whitish sand substrate. It's a 40 gallon, filtered by air, and at 21c. Just as they did in the 15, they shifted the black sand to one end of the tank, and largely cleared off the white. It took 24 hours. It was a remarkable feat of sand pushing and remixing. I have DJ catfish, doing remixes!
The filters are homemade, and designed to deliver extra oxygen via the surface. There is no way they could move sand.
These cool cats hang around over the blackish sand, and sit still on it, as @Byron 's great comments suggested they would. I know the suggestion in that thread was for browner sand, but that was for brown/beige Corydoras. Since these barbatus are mostly black in colouration, especially from above, I took the principle to be the need to match to the camouflage of the fish. They like the dark and mottled patches in the tank, which fits with their colours. But they swim over the slightly finer white sand, and feed over it. They move fast at that end of the tank.
I had created a lovely mottled mosaic over the whole bottom of the long tank, and they clearly thought my work was second-rate.
Right now, they are busy over the dark section they created, engaging in pre-spawning behaviour. I hope that this time, they are finally old enough to give me the possibility of a tank full of these beauties.
I've already planned the gravel out...
