New to Polypterus - Substrate Advice!
- Thread starter ShanerBock888
- Start date
maybe she just wanted to be held and wanted some individual attention. and maybe snacks. hehe.
PiCTURES or it didn't happen. Want to see what color Floramax+ mix you decided on. Plus want to see that smiling gold dust
Ok so I just put together a couple of split screens for the polys that showed significant differences between substrates. My Senegalus didn't look any different so I'll just include a pic in the new tank. I must say I'm incredibly happy with the new substrate. I love the way it looks in the tank, and I love the way it makes the polys look. It keeps the blacks black and the light colors light, full detail and contrast. I've also discovered that spiderwood is perfect for polys. It provides them with the illusion of cover, but since it's kind of gangly it allows you to see them while they hide among it. I think I'm going to add another piece to their tank, along with a couple more plants.
I also plan to finally start a "My Polys" thread soon, rather than continuing to use this thread like one. I also may start a new thread just for these before and after pics because I wish I'd had them when I first got into polys, to help decide how to set up their tank.
Some of these pics kinda suck because my phone just sucks, and I finally dug my camera out of storage only to find it's broken. But I think they do a good job of showing how drastic the improvement is.
First is the Endlicheri. This guy was awesome looking all along, but now you can really see his markings. The top pic looks blurry, but believe it or not it's mostly because the black sand just ruined the detail.
Here's my larger Delhezi. He's probably changed the most on the new substrate, and is my most active poly so he seems to be loving the new larger tank.
My Koliba Lapradei lost almost all detail on the black sand and is now shifting toward a sorta dark green which is awesome. He took several weeks to get as dark as he was, so I think he's still changing on the new substrate. I expect him to look even better in a couple weeks.
My Gold Dust is the only one that I think looked better on the black. But he's much much less timid in the new tank for some reason, so I get to see him a lot more. The top pic is horrible because the only time he wasn't hiding he was moving fast, so it's really blurry. But I think it gives the gist of what he looked like.
I never saw my Mokelembembe in the last tank, he spent the whole day behind a rock I had in there, so I couldn't get any decent pics of him. But he was much more brown in that tank, and is now looking a little green. He's also a lot less timid now.
My smaller senegalus looks almost exactly the same as the previous tank. This is the guy with the backbone issue, but he's doing great considering.
And here's the whole tank with the new substrate
I also plan to finally start a "My Polys" thread soon, rather than continuing to use this thread like one. I also may start a new thread just for these before and after pics because I wish I'd had them when I first got into polys, to help decide how to set up their tank.
Some of these pics kinda suck because my phone just sucks, and I finally dug my camera out of storage only to find it's broken. But I think they do a good job of showing how drastic the improvement is.
First is the Endlicheri. This guy was awesome looking all along, but now you can really see his markings. The top pic looks blurry, but believe it or not it's mostly because the black sand just ruined the detail.
Here's my larger Delhezi. He's probably changed the most on the new substrate, and is my most active poly so he seems to be loving the new larger tank.
My Koliba Lapradei lost almost all detail on the black sand and is now shifting toward a sorta dark green which is awesome. He took several weeks to get as dark as he was, so I think he's still changing on the new substrate. I expect him to look even better in a couple weeks.
My Gold Dust is the only one that I think looked better on the black. But he's much much less timid in the new tank for some reason, so I get to see him a lot more. The top pic is horrible because the only time he wasn't hiding he was moving fast, so it's really blurry. But I think it gives the gist of what he looked like.
I never saw my Mokelembembe in the last tank, he spent the whole day behind a rock I had in there, so I couldn't get any decent pics of him. But he was much more brown in that tank, and is now looking a little green. He's also a lot less timid now.
My smaller senegalus looks almost exactly the same as the previous tank. This is the guy with the backbone issue, but he's doing great considering.
And here's the whole tank with the new substrate
I'm going to look for a brownish blasting sand If I can get my hands on some. That or black but I think brown is better?
If you can find brown then definitely brown. The black sand I used is black diamond blasting abrasive. I really like the way it looks in a tank, and I loved the way it looked with my pictus catfish and tinfoil barbs, but for polys I would say get anything but black. I've never heard of brown blasting sand, but if you find some definitely let us know the brand and where you got it. Would be a nice option.
This is the tank I used to have, with pictus cats, tinfoil barbs, and a few albino iridescent sharks. The background was black and the black sand looked awesome. But I think with any fish that can drastically change their color it's just too dark
I have to look around. Hopefully brown would Improve my knives colour as well
Wow they look great. How long have they been on the new substrate?
