Clown Loach very dark in black sand

[flaggy]

Hi there

Since I moved my clown loaches to my tank with black sand, 5 out of 6 have turned very dark. There is one that remains "normal" with the orange parts contrasting well with the black parts.

It has been many months now. Apart from that, they are fine.

Any ideas about how to change this, apart from having to change the substrate to a light colour?

Cheers
Tim

[redshark1]

I have the same problem.

I am going back to a natural gravel as I would prefer my loaches to be colourful!

I suggest you do the same!

Here's a pic of Anthia first on paler gravel (actually black gravel that lost it's colour) and the second on my new black gravel (Marina coated gravel).

[millsn]

Interesting. I wasnt aware they had such a chameleon like ability

[Vancmann]

When deciding on the color substrate to choose I found that on most pics with black or very dark sand, the clowns were very dark, especially the older loaches. By contrast I went with white and light tan sand which I mixed with my existing brown gravel. Now they are more lighter and more brightly colored, either oranger or yellower but depends on the loach. Here are a few pics I just took to show their color compared to the sand. I didn't use flash to show natural color but i did have to brighten up some of the images a little.

Hello