Phantom Red Tail color change

[Sleepdoc]

Such a dramatic change in color. We believe this is 100% due to change in diet. Diet went from almost 100% swai Fillet’s ( was the cheapest fish we could find), to Salmon/Tilapia/ Tilapia stuffed with Hikari Massivore.

The diet of swai clearly was free of pigment. We also noticed a bump in growth rate when the diet was changed/varied. Anyway, we definitely are going to keep his diet varied going forward.

Pearl White:

Golden/Orange:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you for this interesting info and the comparison.

We know so little about these fish morphs, apparently man-made in a lab by flashing fertilized eggs or hatchlings with UV light.

My personal hunch is that the color change you observed and are reporting (thank you!) does not only have to do with the diet change but may largely reflect an inevitable, "natural" shift to xanthism and euritrysm with the phantom RTC age, in analogy to the same color shift in the platinum RTC with age.

Just a side note - 100% swai fillet is in general a bad diet because it lacks a long list of vitamins, minerals, microelements, enzymes, co-factors, pigments, roughage, etc. essential to fish health, proper function and growth, vitality and longevity. All it provides is pretty much protein. E.g., if people follow such diet, they normally develop scurvy, a deficiency of vitamin C, in a few months, lose their teeth, have bleeding gums and a host of other problems; usually die soon too, in half a year or so.

 

[Sleepdoc]

Thanks for the reply. Good info there on a fish that its tough to get info on. Definitely didn’t know about the UV light and how these fish were “created”. I had thought it was a random genetic mutation.

Yeah, we definitely were “off” on the diet choice for awhile. Busy in the post Covid era and I didn’t give much thought to variation. The swai was easy to get at the supermarket and was more economically sensible. Glad we eventually figured it out an will continue to feed him a proper diet.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

wednesday13 is my teacher when comes to morphs and the phantom RTC in particular. This is his area of acute interest.