How to feed Shrimp?

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RD.;4377689; said:
While what Tom states is true, the amount of astaxantihn found in krill or shrimp (including the shell) is but a tiny fraction (80-150 ppm) of what is found in micro-algae feed additives such as Haematococcus pluvialis. (15,000-40,000 ppm) It also has approx. 500 times the antioxident level of Vitamin E.

Feed a high quality pellet and your concerns about natural color enhancing issues in your fish will become a moot point.
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Assuming u don't use a pellet, your fish won't eat shrimp shell, u don't have any additives, and u still want some color enhancement.... ??????? Paprika dusted pieces of tilapia/shrimp/? Where would u guess paprika would measure on the astaxantihn "scale?" Anything else that is found at the grocery store? Is shrimp shell the best u can get store-bought?
 
I feed my FH pellets and market prawns (no shell), for three weeks no improvement on color. Before I was able to feed my Festae live shrimp (with shell :-) ) and in a weeks time the redness improves dramatically. sadly the store that sells these live shrimps are no longer open.

Now the question is .. does the head contain a lot of the red stuff ?.

Qguy will be looking for small live shrimps over the weekend.



Aquanero;4377466; said:
Most of the color enhancing properties of shrimp and krill are located in the shell which also adds roughage to the diet. Shrimp and Krill have a variety of different colors present in their shells as do crabs and lobsters. The pink or red color is the astaxanthin, but its molecules are wrapped up in dark protein chains. So the shells usually look dark. Whenever you cook a protein it uncoils, or denatures, and in the case of these shellfish, that frees the red pigment and the shell changes color. The red in the shell is the astaxanthin which is the color enhancer added to most prepaired fish foods.

Feeding krill or shrimp is not going to turn your fish red overnight or in a week. It will improve the color over time and will only improve the red pigment that's there to begin with. Some fish love krill, some don't, my Trimacs, GT, JD go nuts over it my RD eats it but isn't crazy about it. I guess fish are a little like us some people love Asparagus some hate it.
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Paprika will work somewhat, but is pretty old school. If you want to get serious about supplementing shrimp for added color enhancement, Haematococcus pluvialis would be your best bet.

Naturose astaxanthin (from Cyanotech Corp.) used to be one of the easiest sources one could buy online, but they have not been producing or selling that ingredient for animal feed since March 2008, and the shelf life of that product (even when stored under ideal temperature) is less than 12 months. Yet I continue to see a number of online vendors still selling & advertising Naturose. Hmmmmmm.


qguy ....... If you are feeding pellets and seeing no improvement in overall coloration, then you are either feeding low quality pellets, or your FH is currently maxed out in the color department.

The fish shown in the photo below were raised on an exclusive diet of pellets, and while neither are FH, they show what a mix of good genetics, and good food, can do for overall coloration in a fish.

jorg1.jpg



While the colors red, blue, and green in this fish have been taken to their maximum potential by its premium diet, you can clearly see that the albino D. compressiceps in the background of this photo shows no signs of artificial coloration. A high quality fish food should be able to bring out the wide spectrum of natural colors in a fish, not just the color red, yet at the same time it should not cause a fish that is naturally white, to turn pink, or a fish that is naturally yellow, to become orange. When these unnatural color enhancements take place it is typically caused by excessive use of synthetic color enhancing agents.


HTH
 
A beautiful fish for sure
 
Aquanero;4377466; said:
I guess fish are a little like us some people love Asparagus some hate it.
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I love asparagus.

Also, RD, what is best way to use the astaxanthin softgels? Cut shrimp/tilapia/zucchini and pop a softgel onto the pieces, let soak a while, then refreeze? Any risk of astaxantin overdose? If I use too much will the fish explode in a burst of retina-searing light? How oily is the stuff- will it foul the water? Sorry, sifu, grasshopper asks too many questions.
 
I wouldn't know, I've never used soft gels, my experiments on the past involved the dry powder form.

A rep from Cyanotech once told me that if one used too much in fish feed, that it could cause an increase in aggression levels in some fish. I never experienced that in the past when experimenting with Naturose, so I'm not sure what to make of that. I will say this, when adding a significant amount of Naturose to the pellets that I was feeding (NLS), I saw no improvement in the color of my fish, red, or otherwise.

If one was to use certain synthetic color enhancers, such a Carophyll Pink, you can experience shifts in color, such as white to pink, yellow to orange, etc. This is sometimes what lower cost feeds use as their main (or only) color enhancing agent, especially for the color red.
 
Just ordered astaxanthin softgels. I guess I will guinea pig my way through this one.
 
I'm guessing that it's just going to make a big mess, but good luck!

BTW - what type of fish are you going to be feeding this to?
 
RD.;4395288; said:
I wouldn't know, I've never used soft gels, my experiments on the past involved the dry powder form.

A rep from Cyanotech once told me that if one used too much in fish feed, that it could cause an increase in aggression levels in some fish. I never experienced that in the past when experimenting with Naturose, so I'm not sure what to make of that. I will say this, when adding a significant amount of Naturose to the pellets that I was feeding (NLS), I saw no improvement in the color of my fish, red, or otherwise.

If one was to use certain synthetic color enhancers, such a Carophyll Pink, you can experience shifts in color, such as white to pink, yellow to orange, etc. This is sometimes what lower cost feeds use as their main (or only) color enhancing agent, especially for the color red.
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*Cough* Hikari? Lol.
 
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