Flourite red with bichirs

[beau1990]

So my we ended up with mts (not the fun kind, I mean the snails)and I'm thinking about emptying the tank and removing all the substrate and starting that part over the tanks been running black diamond sand for a while and I've had moderate success with plants but I want to make it a planted bichir tank so I wad wondering if the flourite red would be safe and/ will it achieve a similar effect to red garnet sand and enhance the overall patterns on the fish?

 

[Hao]

In short, yeah flourite red should have somewhat similar of an effect as garnet sand (in terms of coloring up/contrast).


if you are curious about the long answer here you go:

Whenever someone ask me “what’s the best substrate/background for my bichir?”, my answer would generally be: It depends on the individual fish.
Each fish will color up differently to their environment despite being from the same batch/parents.
Generally, if the fish is naturally lighter, you might need a darker environment to bring out the contrast. If the fish is darker, then a lighter environment may be better for the fish’s contrast. (yes, the background does matter too, not just substrate). Of course, there are a few fish that are genetically gifted and will color up in any substrate/environment (quite rare though).
With that being said, yes garnet sand is generally a safe choice (in terms of coloring up/contrast) but that doesn’t mean it will work for every bichir out there. I’ve had few bichirs that did not show contrast on garnet but did show better contrast on different substrate.

In the end, it’s all about trial and error.

Here is an example of what I mean:

It’s pretty interesting to see how the contrast on my endlicheri has changed over the years on different substrate/background. (Minor color difference due to lighting but we are looking at contrast in this example)
2018- blue background, purple garnet
2021- white background, red garnet
2023- black background, purple garnet
2024- black background, red garnet (same red garnet as 2021, red garnet can come in different shades)



Here are a few examples for when I said garnet sand isn't necessarily the best for every bichir out there: You can see they ended up being washed out when I moved them from my mixed natural substrate to garnet sand.





With that being said, I've had quite a bit of success in terms of keeping most of my bichirs nice and dark with my natural mixture substrate. Although some of them are little light on it. (again, goes back to how every fish will color differently)

In case you're curious, I use Caribsea Ecocomplete red (somewhat similar to Seachem flourite red) mixed with a natural-colored light sand (idk brand got it at LFS).
I want to say its like a 35% Ecocomplete (gravel) and 65% sand mix.

Here is how my substrate looks premix:



After the mix:




Anyway, hopefully that was helpful.

 

[beau1990]

Thank you Hao for your response honestly you were one of the ones id hope who would have chimed in on this very helpful

 

[Hao]

In short, yeah flourite red should have somewhat similar of an effect as garnet sand (in terms of coloring up/contrast).


if you are curious about the long answer here you go:

Whenever someone ask me “what’s the best substrate/background for my bichir?”, my answer would generally be: It depends on the individual fish.
Each fish will color up differently to their environment despite being from the same batch/parents.
Generally, if the fish is naturally lighter, you might need a darker environment to bring out the contrast. If the fish is darker, then a lighter environment may be better for the fish’s contrast. (yes, the background does matter too, not just substrate). Of course, there are a few fish that are genetically gifted and will color up in any substrate/environment (quite rare though).
With that being said, yes garnet sand is generally a safe choice (in terms of coloring up/contrast) but that doesn’t mean it will work for every bichir out there. I’ve had few bichirs that did not show contrast on garnet but did show better contrast on different substrate.

In the end, it’s all about trial and error.

Here is an example of what I mean:

It’s pretty interesting to see how the contrast on my endlicheri has changed over the years on different substrate/background. (Minor color difference due to lighting but we are looking at contrast in this example)
2018- blue background, purple garnet
2021- white background, red garnet
2023- black background, purple garnet
2024- black background, red garnet (same red garnet as 2021, red garnet can come in different shades)
View attachment 1540850


Here are a few examples for when I said garnet sand isn't necessarily the best for every bichir out there: You can see they ended up being washed out when I moved them from my mixed natural substrate to garnet sand.

View attachment 1540848

View attachment 1540849

With that being said, I've had quite a bit of success in terms of keeping most of my bichirs nice and dark with my natural mixture substrate. Although some of them are little light on it. (again, goes back to how every fish will color differently)

In case you're curious, I use Caribsea Ecocomplete red (somewhat similar to Seachem flourite red) mixed with a natural-colored light sand (idk brand got it at LFS).
I want to say its like a 35% Ecocomplete (gravel) and 65% sand mix.

Here is how my substrate looks premix:
View attachment 1540847
View attachment 1540846

After the mix:
View attachment 1540845
View attachment 1540851
View attachment 1540852

Anyway, hopefully that was helpful.

koltsixx good read about substrate too as well as the answer to what the mix is.

 

[koltsixx]

Thank you Hao it's much appreciated, and it was indeed a informative read. Definite food for thought.