Colors and Fish

[Alshain]

Is there any color that is more soothing as a tank background to fish? Can they even see color? I'm going to paint the sides of my 10g quarantine tank and I was wondering what color I should choose, or should I choose something that disease symptoms will be more easily seen on?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I use black backgrounds for all of our tanks. It makes the natural fish coloration stand out more. It also brings out the colors of plants.

 

[QTOFFER]

Fish must be able to see color. Otherwise, why would they become more intensely colored at breeding time?

Dark colors help fish feel more secure. I'd go with black or dark blue.

 

[talloulou]

My recent most favorite background is the one that looks like textured stone. It's nice, soothing , and looks good with algae and stuff. I never clean the back glass only the front and sides so the textured looking background seems to look better than the glossy blue or black ones in my case.

 

[sith j]

ya i like black

 

[GouramiFanatic]

An alternative to painting, if you'd rather go with something more flexible, is to go to a craft store and pick up some scrapbooking paper. For the smaller tanks (10 gallon) it only takes a couple of 12x12 sheets and it's easy to tape on the back. For my 75 gallon tank it took 8 sheets and I taped it onto a piece of poster board to help me keep it straight as I taped it to the tank. My 10 gallon has solid black and my 75 gallon has a nice textured brown paper. I love how it looks!

 

[Alshain]

Yeah I could use a tape on background but I wan't practice before I paint my expensive display tank with the stone paint. If I screw this one up, its $10 at petsmart and I don't intend to use it for anything but quarantine anyway. I would rather use paint, to me it is easier because the backgrounds always come untaped if the tape should get a little wet and then they fall off.