Macmasteri red shoulder?

[Greg M Mulvihill]

Purchased as juveniles, coloring up nicely! Makes me wonder what they would look like on a white substrate!

 

[MacZ]

On white substrate the fish will look washed out.

 

[Greg M Mulvihill]

I've seen some that lose most of the black but retain the reds & yellows on a lighter sand.
This is a heavily planted 100ga tank so I'm not changing anytime soon

 

[Greg M Mulvihill]

The lads getting a bit rowdy on display! They mostly just posture & puff about. Big Brother in the background seperates them if they get too aggro.

 

[Apistonaut]

You can achieve happy Apistogramma with bleach white substrates, but you will have to sacrifice a lot of plant growth in exchange for subdued lighting conditions which require many floating plants and low powered lights. They will just glass surf and become food forward all the while becoming more aggressive if you put the spotlight on them.

 

[Greg M Mulvihill]

Interesting! They are in a medium light low tech tank now & are constantly in the open. Easy stem plants/epiphytes, maybe 40par. I did add some floaters to help with nitrates but they were equally active before. Perhaps the schooling fish above put them at ease...