[densir2]

I have red colored gravel in my 10 gallon tank. For my 5 gallon tank which is fully established has blue gravel and nothing seems to be wrong. Is colored gravel bad in any shape or form.

 

[crzy2u]

It's not a natural thing in a fish's normal environment so naturally the fish would feel unnatural (lol)
Some say it hurts the fish's eyes and what not.
Anyway it's definitely not going to kill your fish but it's all that great either. Every animal is happier in something that replicates their natural environment best.

 

[henningc]

Yesterday I responded to someone who put a light up cave in the tank and promply killed off almost all the fish. I gave them this advise: If the fish would never see it in nature, don't put it in the tank. Drift wood, natural rock, water, plants, bugs inverts and fish. I have seen colored gravel cause problems and it is never a good idea to use it. Would you spray paint some gravel and put it in your tank??? Before you say it, you don't know what kind of paint is on the gravel, so don't even think it. And NO, just because fish may see a tire polluting the water, I don't recommend adding one.

The only non-natural things I use are coffee cups as caves, PVC for my crayfish and plastic plants. Thats it.

 

[Thepoweranga]

I totally agree with henningc. I personally would never use colored gravel at all. it looks tacky and every time someone mentions it i can only imagine goldfish tanks with neon gravel -shudder- although i must say in certain applications colored gravel isn't always a bad thing like for example, black gravel with a small amount of red mixed through looks good and so does the natural colored gravel/gemstone chips people use in betta tanks.

long story short i believe it stresses out the fish and takes alot of attention away from the fish (not a bad thing if you are stuck with a dull fish haha) but as with most things its all to do with personal preference