what color gravel do you think brings out zz fh color the best?

[terminalMTS]

from what i have seen, red gravel makes the reds look lighter. my fh/parrot pair started fighting and eating some of their eggs last night, so i moved the male fh into a tank with blue gravel. i thought that he had very little color, just hints of red. when he got in the tank with the blue gravel, he looked like a different fish. he has alot of red that you can't see withthe red gravel. i read that red gravel was supposed to make your fh look better, but now i think that it isn't true.

for the poll
what color gravel do you think best brings out the reds in your zz flowerhorn?
red
blue
natural
green
multicolor with red
muliticolor without red

 

[snailmaster]

i don't use gravel. all i have is white sand. so i wouldn't know.

 

[scooter]

even though it wasn't an option, i think black whether its sand or gravel, for improved color on most fish think dark substrate or substrate of a complimentary color; to bring out reds use blue rocks, purples use red-pink rocks, blues use black, and also don't underestimate how important the proper spectrum of light is.

 

[tylerperkins]

black is the worst thing you can do with a FH it washes them out

 

[BrynMichael]

I totally agree here. Black should only be used for fully faded fish such as Jin Kangs and SRT. Fish will naturally try to imitate their surroundings. For best results I would say anything with lots of color. I used to have natural gravel in all my tanks and my fh's looked good. I switched to multicolored neon gravel with red and now all of the fish are looking great. However though a number of factors go into how a fish will turn out. Light, gravel, background, decor, tankmates, water quality and especially food all play a role in your fishes aesthetic values. Simply changing your substrate may not have any results. The main thing is that black gravel or black background is the worst possible choice for any flowerhorns. I personally think the best is a high color substrate with a colorful or solid blue background. Then again I am not an expert and this is just my experience.

 

[christ4paul]

for flowerhorns i suggest bright colors because dark colors makes the flowerhorns look very dark. and doesnt show the full potential of the color.

 

[terminalMTS]

thanks. yeah i know about black gravel. i put my first fh in a tank with black gravel and black backround. my wife asked me if she was dying. she said the fh looked horrible, and she was right. she had dark black stripes and her base color darkened to the point where you couldn't see the red at all. the fh didn't change all at once so i didn't know what happened yet.
i think i have too much red in the one tank. the male i was talking about has been getting alot more color recently, even in the tank with the red gravel. i think i will just add some more blue to tone it down a little.

 

[Camphilophus]

clown puke ftw but I don't think gravel has anything to do with how the fish looks. It's all in the lighting. I prefer light colored sand and a dark or blackbackground.

 

[fhcruiser]

my tank has black background, just all clean water for me and some pebbles to play around