Color enhancing fish food

[San Diego Joe]

Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.

Does anyone have any factual information or a first hand opinion about
"color enhancing" fish foods? Does it actually make those reds brighter?
Will it bring back a color that has faded? I am, of course, completely
skeptical. Plus, they are very much more expensive than the standard food.

Thanks in advance.

San Diego Joe
4,000 - 5,000 Gallons.
Koi, Goldfish, and RES named Colombo.

[Koi-Lo]

"San Diego Joe" > wrote in message
...
> Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.
>
> Does anyone have any factual information or a first hand opinion about
> "color enhancing" fish foods? Does it actually make those reds brighter?
> Will it bring back a color that has faded? I am, of course, completely
> skeptical. Plus, they are very much more expensive than the standard food.
===========================
Pond fish with faded color? My gold fish and koi were never fed any color
enhancing foods and have excellent color. Check out my website. The fish
outside are more brilliantly colored than those inside in aquariums - but I
assume you're talking about fish in ponds. Some genuine unbiased research
would be helpful.

BTW, my pond fish are fed mainly Catfish and Trout chow (about $12 per 50
lbs) and are thriving and reproducing like rabbits on it. My ponds are also
loaded with plants.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
San Diego Joe > wrote:
>Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.
>
>Does anyone have any factual information or a first hand opinion about
>"color enhancing" fish foods? Does it actually make those reds brighter?
>Will it bring back a color that has faded? I am, of course, completely
>skeptical. Plus, they are very much more expensive than the standard food.

It's a well understood concept in fish, birds and what have you. Certain
foods, such as carrots and paprika will impart or enhance a red coloration
in fish or "red factor" canaries (red factor is a gene than if present,
turns the bird red if it eats paprika).

I gut-load white worms with carrot puree to get this. You can usually
get any food animal to eat carrot. Dunno about paprika (although any
red chili will work) but it may work.

I don't know but I suspect pond-carp such as goldfish and koi might
eat coursly grated carrot.

I personally think color enhancing fishfood is a very expensive
way to buy buy carrots. Look at the label and it should be obvious
what the coloring ingregient is.

--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

[Richard Sexton]

In article >,
Koi-Lo > wrote:
>Pond fish with faded color?

It's not a fading issue. No matter how colorful your fish are
the reds will be more intense if they get some carrot or ground
chilis.


--
Need Mercedes parts? http://parts.mbz.org
Richard Sexton | Mercedes stuff: http://mbz.org
1970 280SE, 72 280SE | Home pages: http://rs79.vrx.net
633CSi 250SE/C 300SD | http://aquaria.net http://killi.net

[Altum]

San Diego Joe wrote:
> Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.
>
> Does anyone have any factual information or a first hand opinion about
> "color enhancing" fish foods? Does it actually make those reds brighter?
> Will it bring back a color that has faded? I am, of course, completely
> skeptical. Plus, they are very much more expensive than the standard food.

I love feeding color enhancing foods. They usually contain a lot of
carotenoid pigments and/or algae. Fish must obtain carotenoids from
their food - they cannot synthesize the pigments themselves, although
they can interconvert them. Carotenoids produce the green-yellow,
yellow, orange, and red colors, and they're mostly synthesized by plants
and algae. The more pigment you feed your fish, the more it can store
and the brighter the color gets. Carotenoids commonly occurring in
freshwater fish include beta-carotene, lutein, taraxanthin, astaxanthin,
tunaxanthin, alpha-, beta-doradexanthins, and zeaxanthin.

I used to feed color food to my African cichlids and I had amazing,
yellow-orange N. leleupis. I brought some into a store to sell, the
fish manager was amazed. I also recently switched to TetraMin color
flakes from the regular TetraMin. My gold white clouds went from pale
gold to a rich, orangey gold. My koi angelfish also went from yellow to
orange and developed more areas of color. I've always used color
pellets for my goldfish, and the little sarassa comets I bought recently
have turned from orange to a much deeper red on the color food.

A commercial example of color feeding is salmon flesh. Wild salmon have
bright pink flesh from eating shellfish which are rich in astaxanthin (a
carotenoid). The shellfish get it from eating algae, which produce the
pigment. Farmed salmon must be colorfed to get the flesh looking pink
the way people expect. Flamingos are also pink from eating
astaxanthin-containing algaes.

I think you would be very happy with the results of a color food in
restoring color to your faded fish.

--
Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply.
Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com

[Altum]

Richard Sexton wrote:

> It's a well understood concept in fish, birds and what have you. Certain
> foods, such as carrots and paprika will impart or enhance a red coloration
> in fish or "red factor" canaries (red factor is a gene than if present,
> turns the bird red if it eats paprika).
>
> I gut-load white worms with carrot puree to get this. You can usually
> get any food animal to eat carrot. Dunno about paprika (although any
> red chili will work) but it may work.
>
> I don't know but I suspect pond-carp such as goldfish and koi might
> eat coursly grated carrot.
>
> I personally think color enhancing fishfood is a very expensive
> way to buy buy carrots. Look at the label and it should be obvious
> what the coloring ingregient is.

Yeah. Mostly algae and shrimp meal, not carrots. ;-) Paprika and
carrots will give some orange and orange-reds, but real reds come from
algal astaxanthan either directly or by way of shellfish. I wonder if
an algae food would be a cheaper alternative along with the carrots?

--
Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply.
Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com

[Mr. Gardener]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 20:39:55 +0000 (UTC),
(Richard Sexton) wrote:

>In article >,
>Koi-Lo > wrote:
>>Pond fish with faded color?
>
>It's not a fading issue. No matter how colorful your fish are
>the reds will be more intense if they get some carrot or ground
>chilis.

Paprika is a common color enhancer as well. And it's great on fish
chowder.

-- Mister Gardener

[~ janj]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 21:05:34 GMT, Altum > wrote:

>I love feeding color enhancing foods. They usually contain a lot of
>carotenoid pigments and/or algae. Fish must obtain carotenoids from
>their food - they cannot synthesize the pigments themselves, although
>they can interconvert them. Carotenoids produce the green-yellow,
>yellow, orange, and red colors, and they're mostly synthesized by plants
>and algae. The more pigment you feed your fish, the more it can store
>and the brighter the color gets. Carotenoids commonly occurring in
>freshwater fish include beta-carotene, lutein, taraxanthin, astaxanthin,
>tunaxanthin, alpha-, beta-doradexanthins, and zeaxanthin.
>
>I used to feed color food to my African cichlids and I had amazing,
>yellow-orange N. leleupis. I brought some into a store to sell, the
>fish manager was amazed. I also recently switched to TetraMin color
>flakes from the regular TetraMin. My gold white clouds went from pale
>gold to a rich, orangey gold. My koi angelfish also went from yellow to
>orange and developed more areas of color. I've always used color
>pellets for my goldfish, and the little sarassa comets I bought recently
>have turned from orange to a much deeper red on the color food.
>
>A commercial example of color feeding is salmon flesh. Wild salmon have
>bright pink flesh from eating shellfish which are rich in astaxanthin (a
>carotenoid). The shellfish get it from eating algae, which produce the
>pigment. Farmed salmon must be colorfed to get the flesh looking pink
>the way people expect. Flamingos are also pink from eating
>astaxanthin-containing algaes.
>
>I think you would be very happy with the results of a color food in
>restoring color to your faded fish.

I once heard that they could turn whites to pink, sounds like you haven't
found this to be so? Last thing someone wants is a red & pink koi, how
clashing. ;o) ~ jan


~ jan/WA
Zone 7a

[Koi-Lo]

"Richard Sexton" > wrote in message
...
> I personally think color enhancing fishfood is a very expensive
> way to buy buy carrots. Look at the label and it should be obvious
> what the coloring ingregient is.
====================
My brilliant red and deep orange koi live in a 2000g pond that's in the sun
all day. There is always a nice green fluffy algae on the liner they love
munching on. They must be getting their color from this. They don't get
carrots or paprika unless the catfish and trout chow contains it and I
didn't see it listed as an ingredient. They also get some dry cat food as a
treat along with their fish pellets.

This also applies to my outdoor goldfish which have intense colors.
--
Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
~~~ }<((((o> ~~~ }<{{{{o> ~~~ }<(((((o>

[Altum]

~ janj wrote:

> I once heard that they could turn whites to pink, sounds like you haven't
> found this to be so? Last thing someone wants is a red & pink koi, how
> clashing. ;o) ~ jan

ROFL - that's a pretty funny mental image. My shubunkin, ryukin and
sarassa comets have stayed white where they're supposed to be white.
I've been feeding the shubunkin color food for a year, and the ryukin
for six months. The comets are babies that I've only had a couple
months. I suppose if a fish didn't have clean genetics, it might
accumulate pigment in undesirable places.

--
Put the word aquaria in the subject to reply.
Did you read the FAQ? http://faq.thekrib.com

[[email protected]]

Blacks fade in warmer water, hold up better in cold water. but any of the fish foods
with algae will enhance color as stated before. Ingrid

Altum > wrote:

>~ janj wrote:
>
>> I once heard that they could turn whites to pink, sounds like you haven't
>> found this to be so? Last thing someone wants is a red & pink koi, how
>> clashing. ;o) ~ jan
>
>ROFL - that's a pretty funny mental image. My shubunkin, ryukin and
>sarassa comets have stayed white where they're supposed to be white.
>I've been feeding the shubunkin color food for a year, and the ryukin
>for six months. The comets are babies that I've only had a couple
>months. I suppose if a fish didn't have clean genetics, it might
>accumulate pigment in undesirable places.



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[BoyPete]

Altum wrote:
> San Diego Joe wrote:
>> Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.
>>
>> Does anyone have any factual information or a first hand opinion
>> about "color enhancing" fish foods? Does it actually make those reds
>> brighter? Will it bring back a color that has faded? I am, of
>> course, completely skeptical. Plus, they are very much more
>> expensive than the standard food.
>
> I love feeding color enhancing foods. They usually contain a lot of
> carotenoid pigments and/or algae. Fish must obtain carotenoids from
> their food - they cannot synthesize the pigments themselves, although
> they can interconvert them. Carotenoids produce the green-yellow,
> yellow, orange, and red colors, and they're mostly synthesized by
> plants and algae. The more pigment you feed your fish, the more it
> can store and the brighter the color gets. Carotenoids commonly
> occurring in freshwater fish include beta-carotene, lutein,
> taraxanthin, astaxanthin, tunaxanthin, alpha-, beta-doradexanthins,
> and zeaxanthin.
> I used to feed color food to my African cichlids and I had amazing,
> yellow-orange N. leleupis. I brought some into a store to sell, the
> fish manager was amazed. I also recently switched to TetraMin color
> flakes from the regular TetraMin. My gold white clouds went from pale
> gold to a rich, orangey gold. My koi angelfish also went from yellow
> to orange and developed more areas of color. I've always used color
> pellets for my goldfish, and the little sarassa comets I bought
> recently have turned from orange to a much deeper red on the color
> food.
> A commercial example of color feeding is salmon flesh. Wild salmon
> have bright pink flesh from eating shellfish which are rich in
> astaxanthin (a carotenoid). The shellfish get it from eating algae,
> which produce the pigment. Farmed salmon must be colorfed to get the
> flesh looking pink the way people expect. Flamingos are also pink
> from eating astaxanthin-containing algaes.
>
> I think you would be very happy with the results of a color food in
> restoring color to your faded fish.

Why interfere with nature?? Sit and watch your fish, be they in a pond or a
tank. They are all individuals......learn to enjoy them the way nature
intended.
--
ßôyþëtë

[Mister Gardener]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 21:01:33 +0100, "BoyPete" >
wrote:

>Altum wrote:
>> San Diego Joe wrote:
>>> Haven't been here for a while. Notice the din has died a tad.

Yeah, ain't it nice? It's a great community here and people have been
hanging in there and posting on relevant topics and when the
background noise begins, we just have to raise our voices a little to
be heard, but the important thing is that we keep the ponds topic
rolling and ignore the occasional bumps and dips we may run into. Just
roll right over them.

>Why interfere with nature?? Sit and watch your fish, be they in a pond or a
>tank. They are all individuals......learn to enjoy them the way nature
>intended.

Point well taken. But I'm not certain that they are anywhere near the
way nature intended them since we began messing with their genes
thousands (?) of years ago. I wonder if some of the supplements we're
adding to colorific food is simply replacing something that may have
been present in their natural diet. Way back then, way far away. I'll
sit on the fence for this one - anything's better than injecting dyes
or applying tattoos. Well, most anything.

-- Mister Gardener