What food brings out the best color in your fish?

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pops

Alligator Gar
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I am a Aqueon fan ATM. got your marigold and chili powder in it and great stuff for the fish.
 

RD.

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Find some high quality pellets and soak them in vitamins. It will bring out color and health in all fish.

High quality pellets already contain a high quality vitamin premix.
 

RD.

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Actually, that's not necessarily true. In some cases excess vitamins can lead to hypervitaminosis, a condition which over time can lead to toxicity. This is especially true with fat-soluble vitamins due to their ability to accumulate in the body, hence they generally have a higher potential for toxicity than do water soluble vitamins.

That, and one is pretty much watching their fish piss good money down the drain if one is already feeding a high quality pellet. If feeding fresh/frozen as the staple that's a different story.
 

justarn

Arapaima
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RD, what are your thoughts on feeding human astaxanthin capsuals suppliments to fish? I was told that the super red oscars were actually born albino reds then fed it in high quantity? Not that im a fan but curious as to whether that's the case?

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RD.

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In Asia it is common practice to boost colors artificially, either through the use of hormones (via the water) or via the feed with substances such as Carophyll Pink, or Carophyll Red, which are synthetic forms of astaxanthin. Unless ones fish are genetic weaklings, and/or one feeds a really poor diet, there's really no reason to use things such as astaxanthin capsules as supplements. A high quality commercial food is already full of all of the natural color enhancers a fish needs to look its best, ditto to vitamins & minerals.

The fish shown below were raised on an exclusive diet of the same commercial pellets. The photo of the Discus were taken under cheap shop lights with $2 fl tubes.










 

mattison187

Redtail Catfish
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NLS marine. Wether it be flakes, pellets, ect.. fed along with your staple food a couple times a week. ill probly get flamed for feeding marine food to my tropicals, but in my personal experience that seems to make a big difference.

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RD.

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Tropical/marine, doesn't matter one whit, same results if one is feeding NLS.
 

asm129

Gambusia
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Hey RD. Quick question. Is it even worth buying products like VitaChem to soak pellets in then if you say pellets already have vitamins in them?
 

RD.

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No, it's pointless, unless one is feeding low quality pellets.
 
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