Lets Talk Color Enhancers

[SNap0283]

So I know many of you make your own food mixes. I see young fish with great color and I see brilliant adult fish that are stunning. What color enhancers are people using and what volume do you use in your mixes?

Every time i puchase fish from very reputable sources the color fades a bit as i feed them my mix, so share some of your knowledge with the crowd!

[discgo]

Good question, I have noticed the same, but not until about 6 months after purchase. I don't know if breeder was using color enhancers ??

[Surfnturf]

Could it be hormones?

[GivensOU]

These breeders to gain a competitive advantage usually deflate their fish food! #toosoon? But, I noticed that myself, I usually buy color enhancing food. Recently bought some of AL FDBW with color enhancing food, to early to give you any results.

[bluelagoon]

I feed my discus a krill/plankton/shprimp and Omaga marine flakes with garlic 2-3 small feedings a day,plus FDBW a few times a week.This mix gives my albino discus a more yellow to orange look and the two PB's markings a orange appearance.I did have them on the blackworm flakes with color enhancers.The golden albino appeared a more pink and the PB's appeared pinkish;I liked this color better.Just thought I'd share my experience with color enhancers.

[alron2]

Tim what do you mean by this statement "These breeders to gain a competitive advantage usually deflate their fish food!" ?
Ron

[alron2]

So I know many of you make your own food mixes. I see young fish with great color and I see brilliant adult fish that are stunning. What color enhancers are people using and what volume do you use in your mixes?

Every time i puchase fish from very reputable sources the color fades a bit as i feed them my mix, so share some of your knowledge with the crowd!

None of the experts seem to want to talk about this, wonder why?
Ron

[GivensOU]

It was a football joke.

[Quintin]

I had to buy sera red and blue color enhancing food a while back.the red did nothing in my opinion but the blue was excelent.But that being said i dont like using coolor foods

[strawberryblonde]

I tried color enhancing foods off and on and either didn't care for the results - blue fish eating red enhancing colors turn a not so pretty color and I really didn't see any noticeable changes in the red fish that it was supposed to help.

Al's FDBW's with red pigments DO work over time, but again, if you have anything but red discus, you are going to get weird coloration in the rest of the discus. My pretty pink discus with electric blue fins has turned a not so pretty muddy orange with dull fins.

I'm just finishing up the last of those cubes and from now on will stick with his spinach and plain flavors. =)

Ok, having said that, I DO have some brilliant colors in my tank! Not from enhancing their food source but by changing up my lighting and background.

I switched to a super duper LED strip and wow did that make a difference! It comes with a remote with tons of color options so sometimes I enhance the reds, others I enhance the blues. And sometimes I go with the purple lights and enhance both, just slightly less enhancement.

I also changed the back of my tank from light green to black. I know that black is supposed to be bad for pigeon bloods but I haven't noticed any increase in peppering at all. 2 discus have slight peppering - one has a dot on its nose and the other has light peppering under its chin. Beyond that, they are all pepper free even with the dark background, plants and driftwood.

The black definitely shows off their colors more brightly!

Ohhh, I should probably add that I haven't had any color fading once I get them into my home. They stay the same as when I bought them. Maybe it's a specific breeder or three who are using pigment enhancers? Must not be my suppliers. LOL

[brewmaster15]

Hi all,
This question and related ones come up all time.... I have posted a bit on the biology of how pigments affect fish...I will see if i can find some of those older threads but for now..http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...-red-naturally

Basically fish like discus dont make pigments like reds...they ingest them in the food they eat and translocate them to special cells meant to house the pigments. I believe The process is regulated by the endocrine system.


Basically if you want red fish you need to feed them red pigments in some form. Luckily there are many sources of red pigments.

Blues work different... my understanding is these are harder to influence...most foods attributed with blues like spirullina also contain fair amounts of orange.

Hth,
al

[a.person61]

Just my 2 cents on colour enhancers, it can be a little harder to determine if your fish is abit down as the colour won't appear to change.

[FishFanMan]

I bought a nice yellow 4 incher from a sponsor and within 2 weeks it turned orange with Al's color enhancing fdbw. I'm going back to regular fdbw soon. I don't see much effect on my blue discus.