Why is natural colors fewer???

[enchanted]

After being on this site and visiting many others I feel I made a major mistake going colored.

I am fixing it, but as I look for "natural" items I am amazed at how so few places sell nice rocks, driftwood, etc... that is natural. They all want to sell resin ones or for real rock, etc..., they want to sell you rainbows.........

Are colors that much more popular? To be honest when viewing pictures it almost looks as if they detract from the fish.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

IMO, you're right.

It's just that many fish keepers are inexperienced and just keep them as novelty fish. Supply and demand==> their demands outweigh ours. isn't taht sad?

Anyways, you might be able to find some landscapers in your phonebook. They might have stuff they could give you.

 

[MrMashashin]

yea the only natral gravel i found was at walmart and in big 50lb bags

but i think sand would be a big +. Everything seems to enjoy it alot.

 

[Teelie]

I've never had trouble finding natural colored or geniunely natural rock and decorations. Several of the local shops have colored rocks that are naturally formed or formed from natural elements. I don't think multiple colors are necessarily a bad thing, they just require careful selection and placement, like anything you add to an aquarium.

In my aquariums, the only unnaturally colored decorations are some black plants with white tips and an all white plant though my fish don't seem to mind them at all.

 

[MXPX4318]

hmm I know petsmart sells natural rock regularly, I kind of like my deep red (kind of blood red) with natural wood and silk artifical plants made to mimic real ones, but yes natural should be found at petsmart.

 

[Angry_Platy]

It is easier here and cheaper to buy natural looking things for the aquarium....although it took me ages to find real driftwood in the size I needed it

 

[Ben]

by my sisters request i put some coloured gravel in the fry tank

that was quite a few years ago, and now the colours worn off and it has turned into natural gravel, lol

 

[FishDan]

I think it is fairly easy to find "natural" decor for aquariums. Just because the rock is resin or plastic, does not make it bad. In some cases it may be better to use a lighter fake rock than a pile of real rocks. It is important to by "fake" things that look real. That being said, I have a little of both real and fake. My plants in my two tanks are all fake, though one tank has more "real-looking" fake plants than the other. One tank has real rocks, the other plastic one. The real slate looked best with my black sand, the brown plastic rock looks spectacular with my play sand. For most things, natural looking is more than sufficient. Though things like live plants are more benefit to the aquarium than real rocks, but even getting nice looking plastic plants makes for a gorgeous aquarium, and is best for someone without time or desire to endlessly prune, etc.

\Dan

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

hmm i seem to find natural stuff very easily

 

[Logitech]

The only colored gravel I own is white gravel.
When you fix it up in the tank right, with a blue-ish flourescent light, the tank looks super clean.
But now I think I'm going to switch to sand to make it even more natural.

 

[enchanted]

Well, first I searched online. If someone knows a good online store, then please let me know. I found a large quantity of colored stones, and I am speaking of stones that I realy don't think you would ever see naturally, but I found a very limited supply of fully natural stones, driftwood, gravel, etc....

Then I started checking the LFS and Petsmart. Petsmart has a few, one LFS had only colored gravel (but natural in there tanks ) and the other one had the gravel, but all there stones, etc... were resin look alikes.

 

[Nauplii]

i think ppl get bright colours and novelty items to impress the kids... otherwise theres no excuse

 

[Vegan Peaches]

Hm... I'm confused, are bright colors bad for fish or something? I have a blue backround and blue gravel, and alot of green fake plants in my tank, and none of it looks natural, lol, but i didn't know you were supposed to make everything look natural 0.o is it better for the fish? Personally, natural tanks look better than my fake one, but my LFS doesn't seel any real stuff except for rocks that are bigger than my aquarium, lol.

 

[enchanted]

I don't know if it's better, but compare the natural aquarium picks to the non-natural.

To me at least the natural just looks so awsome, while the colors are just "blah.".

 

[Teelie]

Hm... I'm confused, are bright colors bad for fish or something? I have a blue backround and blue gravel, and alot of green fake plants in my tank, and none of it looks natural, lol, but i didn't know you were supposed to make everything look natural 0.o is it better for the fish? Personally, natural tanks look better than my fake one, but my LFS doesn't seel any real stuff except for rocks that are bigger than my aquarium, lol.

It's a personal preference thing. The fish don't really seem to care one way or another on the color.