Added black sand and my Indos colored up a lot (with pics)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

johnnycoolxx

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 22, 2009
425
1
48
Grandma's Basement
For everyone who has pale, unstable dats like I did before, you might want to try what I did. I had my dats in a 60g and then moved them to a 210g barebottom tank. They were really unstable though and were pale colored for about 3 months. Last month, I added about 40 lbs of 3m black colorquartz sand and most of them colored up nicely. Before, I couldn't even see their stripes, but now their stripes are much darker and their base color went from a light brown to a a darker brown. I like them a lot more now. I guess it makes sense -- dats want to blend in with their environment so their colors will change if the color around them changes. Try it out. It might make your dats color up.


Here are some before and after pics.

Before adding black sand:

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After adding black sand:
100_1338.jpg


100_1342.jpg


100_1336.jpg
 
all in all a nice bunch of lively Dats.
 
I have another indo from the same batch in a 60g with black sand, black background and dim lighting and he's very stable. Got a nice golden base color and thick black stripes. Maybe a black background will help them color up even more?
 
fish don't like bare bottom tanks. I am doing the same with a Shellie tank. I have them on PF sand but switching to colorquartz s grade this week.
 
Hmm seems like its worth a shot. How much you guys pay for the black sand? Last time it cost a dollar a pound and filling up a 90 with that is crazy
 
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