[Loni]

Hi All,
Stretching some budgets, I changed the pool sand of my six foot tank to black sand. The tank has been painted all black as well. My Malawi cichlids are standing out well and looking beautiful.
I would like to move to a Tanganyika set up.
Now I have been told by my LFS that while the Malawi cichlids are not affected by the substrate of tank color, some fish like the Leleupi, Tropheus & even the cyps often become dull.
Just wanted some insight from you guys. How many of you keep Tangs like some mentioned above in a black setup? Do the Tangs looks color in darker set ups? What is a recommended setup to see Tangs in their full glory?
Thanks,
L :fish:

 

[shellies215]

I have also heard that leleupi will lose color over black, but on the other hand I have seen them over black at my lfs and they were bright orange. I have occies and calvus in a tank with the black/white mixed sand caribsea sells and I don't see any loss of color, if anything they look better.

 

[pomi]

All fish tend to match their coloring to their surrounding, so a light substrate induce fish to lighten their colors, while a dark substrate makes fish darken their colors.

Depending on species, this makes some look good with light substrate and others with dark one.

 

[Lestango]

My rocks are native river rock(I caught them myself :wink: ) and are relatively dark. My substrate is tan gravel that I have been slowly adding white pool filter sand to. My leleupi are still very bright yellow and N. helianthus are moderately gold but I think that is the lineage. I have some from another line that puts them to shame. I don't believe is has anything to do with the substrate color. I keep my tank lighting on the low side.

I also have comps and C. ndobhoi in the tank and color is good. Take it for what it is worth. I am not ready to be changing any substrates to enhance my tangs color. But then if it were color I were after I would go to victorias. I love substrate spawners. Lots of behavioral interests!

Les

55g - N. leleupi, N. helianthus, C. ndobhoi, A. comp
30g - spawning J. transcriptus Bemba "kissi"
29g - spawning N. helianthus, juvie T. vittatus
15g - grow out J. transcriptus Bemba juvies
5g - isolation; bns
40gbr- in the oven,open soon, want to go with A. calvus species tank