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Color enhancing fish food
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. |
#2
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Color enhancing fish food
"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 |
#3
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#4
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#5
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#6
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#7
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#8
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#9
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Color enhancing fish food
"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 |
#10
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Color enhancing fish food
~ 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 |
#11
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Color enhancing fish food
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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List at http://weloveteaching.com/puregold/ sign up: http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?...s=Group+lookup www.drsolo.com Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I receive no compensation for running the Puregold list or Puregold website. I do not run nor receive any money from the ads at the old Puregold site. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan |
#12
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
#13
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Color enhancing fish food
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 |
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