Fish Color

[lucas2]

Just wondering what I can do to bring out the colors in my fish. Seems like when I buy them at the LFS they look great, then slowly go downhill over the next couple weeks.Colors get dull. I bought a couple of peacock cichlids that were beautifull, got them home, and now 3 of the 4 look terrible compared to how they came. Also, I have a couple of jewels and flowerhorns that I bought young and came with very little color, I am assuming that the colors will come out as they mature ( now about 2.5 to 3") but am starting to think I may have just bought ugly fish.

 

[OmahaFishmanion]

I'm with ya there on the Flowerhorn, but I only paid $10 for him. Far from ugly, but was sold as a Red Flowerhorn only with tons of blue speckles and almost no red. I'm feeding a wide variety so hopefully he'll color up, but I'm not crossing my fingers. These people with their damn beautiful fish. J/K

 

[mercury904]

feed them expensive color enhancing pellets

 

[lucas2]

feed them expensive color enhancing pellets

I have been feeding a variety of different things to try and help. Flake, pellets, live shrimp, live feeders, live mealworms ect. I just bought some "expensive color enhancing " food yesterday but haven't tried it yet. Read the back of the container and it lists a bunch of different dyes There must be a better more natural way without artificial dyes?

 

[Cohazard]

I feed frozen krill, hikari gold, tetra color xtreme granules, freeze dried plankton, carnivore, and weekly 50% water changes, to keep my fish vibrant.

Check the dempsey in my avatar, ane the sev and GT's in my gallery.

 

[lucas2]

I'm with ya there on the Flowerhorn, but I only paid $10 for him. Far from ugly, but was sold as a Red Flowerhorn only with tons of blue speckles and almost no red. I'm feeding a wide variety so hopefully he'll color up, but I'm not crossing my fingers. These people with their damn beautiful fish. J/K

Mine have no red and almost no speckles. Just white with the usual black markings. I think I may be just getting impatent with them. I have never been for patients. But I would like to know why a large percentage of my fish are loosing color?

 

[lucas2]

I feed frozen krill, hikari gold, tetra color xtreme granules, freeze dried plankton, carnivore, and weekly 50% water changes, to keep my fish vibrant.

Check the dempsey in my avatar, ane the sev and GT's in my gallery.

Very nice fish I too have a dempsey in the same tank and he is actually very pretty. They all eat the same stuff so this kind of leads me to believe that it isn't diet related. But I am going to keep experimenting with foods.

 

[X24]

to bring out reds, frozen market shrimp does wonders! try giving your fish earthworms, live food like that really make fish happy and their colors should show

 

[MarlboroMan]

Combination of things bring out the best color. Good lighting, clean water, and a wide variety of foods (color enhancing pellets, shrimp, krill, and worms).

 

[lucas2]

I will get them some earthworms tomorrow and see how they like them. Would redworms be OK? Readily available here at baitshops. Also I have seen earthworm pellets, any good?