How do you get those reds, blues, yellows, and greens to shine brightly?

[samcatj]

How do you make your fish show off there vibrant colors like you see in the pictures in books??
I know wc's help and I do them faithfully but still am not getting the colors I know these fine fish can turn on. My lighting is good and I have lights that show off red/blue spectrums.
I have 3 very large pieces of driftwood in my 125g along with natural gravel and a few silk green plants. Does the color or scenery of background paper, gravel color and driftwood have an affect on the fish showing there colors? Currently I am feeding a good variety diet but am not using any color enhancing food. Should I be feeding a color food?
Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.


samcatj

[keno]

I have a natural color gravel in my show tank and it makes the fishes colors appear darker, in my growout tank i have the bottom paninted blue and the fishes colors are much brighter.

Ken

[Carol_Roberts]

How old are your fish, Sam?

Discus become more colorful when they reach adulthood.

In my limited experience runts will eventually color up, but never as brightly as the big monster discus.

You have to decide what you want. Do you want a biotope where the tank full of plants, gravel and wood is the centerpiece with a few discus swimming through?

Or do you want to grow big, brightly colored discus? If you are going for size and color you want to grow discus out in a bare bottom tank with lots of good food and water changes.

Many fish food companies (including hikari) put out a "red enhancing" food now. Look thru the on-line catalogs or your fish store.
Carol :heart1:

[BLUEKNIGHT]

It all depends on what u feed them. the water quality. the quality of the fish. also most pictures are enhanced.