Salvini on dark substrate

[Aqualoon]

A few months ago I bought an almost fully grown adult Male Salvini. He was rather dark but thought it was stress due to the fact that he was a trade in and then I grabbed him a few days later. He never really did color up and always remained kind of dark. I know male's aren't suppose to be all that colorful but he was severely lacking even after a few weeks in his new home. I then started to read around and found that Sals with dark substrate tend to be darker in coloration - well I have black sand. I figured I'd just keep him and live with it. That's until he beat up my female GT he wanted to spawn with so he had to go.

Male pic below


Now, here is a little girl I picked up about two weeks ago - same diet that I was feeding the male. I decided to take a chance and pickup another Sal (but this time to get a female since the majority of my tank is female).



So, what I learned is that it's not necessarily the color of your substrate that would cause a Sal to darken up so bad but it could be a few other factors. The large male I had I don't know what he was fed throughout the coarse of his life, which poor food could be a cause and also genetics. Of course I don't know the parents of the current Sal I have either.

 

[cichlidfish]

Nice salvinis. I'm not sure why he is so dark. Usually it is stress, but it doesn't sound like he is. Maybe it was the stress from beating up your GT? It is hard to say.

 

[AcsFoolMike]

Genetics definitely play the biggest factor here, but I'd be willing to guess that your previous male would have gotten slightly brighter over a more natural colored substrate. I'm not saying he would have looked like that female, but might not have been jet-black.

 

[Aqualoon]

Nice salvinis. I'm not sure why he is so dark. Usually it is stress, but it doesn't sound like he is. Maybe it was the stress from beating up your GT? It is hard to say.

He was in the main tank for about a month and a half, he beat up the GT at the tail end of that and this was taken when he was finally settled in the tank. I've heard from others that had had dark Sal's on a darker substrate too and say that the male above is actually showing more color than their males on dark substrate.

But then here's this female, which I know females are more colorful then males in general, but her yellows are just popping against the dark substrate.

 

[cichlidfish]

He was in the main tank for about a month and a half, he beat up the GT at the tail end of that and this was taken when he was finally settled in the tank. I've heard from others that had had dark Sal's on a darker substrate too and say that the male above is actually showing more color than their males on dark substrate.

But then here's this female, which I know females are more colorful then males in general, but her yellows are just popping against the dark substrate.

Maybe it is genetics like AcsFoolmike suggested. I have seen some males really colorful and some not. Maybe it is age? How big was your male?
What is weird is that the male I have is showing more color at 3'' then the females I have had.

 

[dempsey420]

i had a male salvini that looked great w/ my blue gravel then i switched to black and he looked jus like yours in the picture. imma havta go w/. male+black= no good

 

[Aqualoon]

Maybe it is genetics like AcsFoolmike suggested. I have seen some males really colorful and some not. Maybe it is age? How big was your male?
What is weird is that the male I have is showing more color at 3'' then the females I have had.

He was a good 5". I should have asked his previous owner what his coloration was - I was PM'd on another fish forum informing me that they just turned in a male Sal at a LFS and if I wanted one that would be the place to pick one up. I never could get him to color up and just chalked it up to my substrate choice.

Do you have any pics of your colorful male? Also what kind coloration of substrate?

i had a male salvini that looked great w/ my blue gravel then i switched to black and he looked jus like yours in the picture. imma havta go w/. male+black= no good

This could be a possibility, I went with a female this route as the majority of my tank is female so less chance for a pair to form as I know Sals can get nasty when breeding. I sent a fellow member a PM here awhile back regarding his Sals because he also had black substrate, below is his response to me and his pictures (he also had a female Sal with the black substrate - so dempsey420 you may be onto something here).

The Salvini I had was female. She was vicious and I eventually took her back to the LFS because if she wasn't eating, or beating the crap out of one of my other cichlids, she was hiding. Most frustrating fish I've ever had, lol.

She wasn't always colored up like in the pics. She would fade out sometimes mostly due to her mood. She paired up with my texas cichlid and really showed her colors then. If I had to do it again, I'd get 5-6 juvies and shoot for a semi-peaceful breeding pair. That's when they look their best anyway IMO. Great fish, but so aggressive.

 

[cichlidfish]

He was a good 5". I should have asked his previous owner what his coloration was - I was PM'd on another fish forum informing me that they just turned in a male Sal at a LFS and if I wanted one that would be the place to pick one up. I never could get him to color up and just chalked it up to my substrate choice.

Do you have any pics of your colorful male? Also what kind coloration of substrate?

Unfortunately I don't now, but I will try and get some. I have been using white pool sand. I do have a pic of a 6'' female I had w/ the sand substrait.

 

[Lab_Rat]

This was my male salvini on black substrate:

I'd think your guy being so dark is mostly genetics.