best colour bichir substrate

[eminas]

Oh yeh.. i forgot, i actually do have one tank with red substrate...hehe... it looked kool...but this particular red sand seemed to give my polys rashs on their bellys... as if it were sharp sand or somthing...?

yeh red is kool..but black rules... And i agree with blondie...black sub with black painted b/g...some nice wood and a few green plants...looks awesome!

heres a pic of my red sub tank...as you can see...the polys colours are nowhere as prominent to those on the balck substrate...

 

[pwmin]

Who makes a good black sand?

3M ColorQuartz

 

[moonchild1970]

Thanks!

 

[Infblue]

just to add, as one person already said, the thing with black is that it could turn the bichirs (endli/lap) very dark and lose their contrast. but again between white and black, i'd definitely go for black.

on the other hand, red could darken the stripes without darkening the base color, thus increasing the contrast.

anyway, those are general observation. there's still a bit of individual variation, as well as other contributing factors, such as the rest of the environment, age of the bichir, and what regional variant (for a wild endli) etc.

but regardless of the substrate, black background unless you go for those 3D type natural background.

 

[David R]

but regardless of the substrate, black background unless you go for those 3D type natural background.

Definitely. I've painted the back of my 160g satin black, and I bought a bag of red sand yesterday so I can do some experimenting with mixing it with the dark grey stuff. I'll post some pics tonight.

 

[varanio]

i wonder how a blue back ground and black sand would look? I am getting an acrylic tank that I will be using to house my larger polypterus anyone have experience with a tank with these two contrasting colors and the way it affects the fish?

 

[nrstype]

Black. I am changing mine over soon too.

Those pics....awesome...they look more like crocs then bichirs...lol

I'm seconding that.. the black makes the mood, and they sure do look ominous in that environment, just like crocs.

 

[moonchild1970]

Yeah I love that look! It is awesome!!

 

[pwmin]

I don't have any good pix of bichirs vs. red sand, but here is a pic of the red 3M ColorQuartz S-grade that is in the tank w/ my lap and ornate

 

[moonchild1970]

Where do you all buy your 3M ColorQuartz ? I can't locate any.

Also how do you paint the back of your tanks? Just use spraypaint?