What foods would I feed fish to enhance certain colors? I mean this in general for all color enhancing foods but I'm really interested in foods that enhance blues or purples. Only one i know under that would be spirulina.
What foods enhance what colors
- Thread starter Hybridfish7
- Start date
http://www.bioflux.com.ro/docs/2014.207-216.pdf
There's not always a direct relationship, at least not with natural nutrients. Another way to put it is the same nutrient may be used by different species to produce different colors. Because a food or specific nutrient is a certain color, it doesn't necessarily equal the same color in an animal. Spirulina, which some people think enhances blue, has a blue pigmented nutrient, but also red/orange/yellow pigmented nutrients. Astaxanthin is a good example, an orange-red pigmented carotenoid that can produce red in some species but blue or purple in others, as in blue lobsters, where orange/red astaxanthin looks blue due to protein binding.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080262246500206
I see this in my kapampa gibberosa, krill based NLS, and Omega One shrimp pellets and Omega One Color pellets (which had salmon, including skin, as a natural color enhancer), were all good for their blue color-- I quit using Omega One when they cheapened their formula, replacing some seafood ingredients with more wheat, etc. I've recently been using some NLS Ultra Red with some (not all) of my kapampa, so far they're still blue, not turning red.
So it depends how an animal processes the nutrient. Red pigmented nutrients can enhance red in animals that are supposed to be red. Overall, though, whatever color fish, good nutrition, health, and clean water is the best formula for color ime.
There's not always a direct relationship, at least not with natural nutrients. Another way to put it is the same nutrient may be used by different species to produce different colors. Because a food or specific nutrient is a certain color, it doesn't necessarily equal the same color in an animal. Spirulina, which some people think enhances blue, has a blue pigmented nutrient, but also red/orange/yellow pigmented nutrients. Astaxanthin is a good example, an orange-red pigmented carotenoid that can produce red in some species but blue or purple in others, as in blue lobsters, where orange/red astaxanthin looks blue due to protein binding.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080262246500206
I see this in my kapampa gibberosa, krill based NLS, and Omega One shrimp pellets and Omega One Color pellets (which had salmon, including skin, as a natural color enhancer), were all good for their blue color-- I quit using Omega One when they cheapened their formula, replacing some seafood ingredients with more wheat, etc. I've recently been using some NLS Ultra Red with some (not all) of my kapampa, so far they're still blue, not turning red.
So it depends how an animal processes the nutrient. Red pigmented nutrients can enhance red in animals that are supposed to be red. Overall, though, whatever color fish, good nutrition, health, and clean water is the best formula for color ime.
ah, that makes alot more sense, thank you
see i'm looking into getting some blueberry hermit crabs (coenobita purpureus) and i was looking for foods to help enhance their colors. I know astaxanthin in the diet of other hermit crab species does enhance reds, but since they are blue (pearly white without any pigment in their diet) i'm interested to see if astaxanthin enhances their blues.
see i'm looking into getting some blueberry hermit crabs (coenobita purpureus) and i was looking for foods to help enhance their colors. I know astaxanthin in the diet of other hermit crab species does enhance reds, but since they are blue (pearly white without any pigment in their diet) i'm interested to see if astaxanthin enhances their blues.
Don't know specifically about blue hermit crabs, but in lobsters:
https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/once-in-a-blue-moon-crabber-catches-rare-all-blue-blue-crab.php
Blue lobsters have an unusual amount of the binding protein changing the spectrum of astaxanthin-- supposed to be due to quantum effects according to some recent study. I suspect it must be something similar in blue crabs.
https://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2018/once-in-a-blue-moon-crabber-catches-rare-all-blue-blue-crab.php
Blue lobsters have an unusual amount of the binding protein changing the spectrum of astaxanthin-- supposed to be due to quantum effects according to some recent study. I suspect it must be something similar in blue crabs.