Oscar Colors

[nicko378]

Hi all,

Does the color of substrate affect te coloring on oscars? I have heard that white sand will make them more pale. The reason I ask is because I am setting up a new tank and want to do sand but I want to get black sand this time. So if it will help bring out my oscars colors then I'm going to take the white sand out and put it in the new tank and put the black in with my oscars. If it won't make a difference then I'm not going to go through all that effort of changing sand out and il put the new sand in the new tank


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[_Sushi_]

Most fish will try to "blend" with their surroundings. Let me give you 2 examples from my personal experience. I used to have a red bellied piranha: for a long time, he was on hot pink gravel, he had brilliant coloring for a fish of his size. I switched to play sand, and his color wasn't as bright, it was muted to blend in. The other example is a halfmoon betta. The fish started white with light purple spots, and we kept him on black gravel so he'd show up. He slowly turned black, we put white gravel under him, he was dark purple, we mixed the black and white, and he turned a dark blue. So yes, most fish will change their color to try to match their surroundings.

 

[yogurt_21]

food, water parameters, and mood will affect the color of your oscar. I've never heard of substrate doing so though. More than likely the oscars appeared to change color when someone changed their substrate from light to dark simply because of perspective and lighting, then someone thought it actually changes their color and posted it. This happens often on here.

 

[knifegill]

Heck, they change colors minute to minute anyway. I'm a big fan of black substrate or barebottom, just because it makes the fish stand out.