Helping Fish Coloration

[Flyangler33]

Hey All,

Was curious what people supplement on the fish food to help with their coloration. I have a small yellow tang, hes a little on the opaque side, very healthy otherwise, but wanted to see if there was anything I can help supplement to help give him that deep yellow pop and help my fish in general.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Hey All,

Was curious what people supplement on the fish food to help with their coloration. I have a small yellow tang, hes a little on the opaque side, very healthy otherwise, but wanted to see if there was anything I can help supplement to help give him that deep yellow pop and help my fish in general.

I've been meaning to look more into this, but the most common ones at the moment are astaxanthin (reds) and spirulina (blue/green).

Foods with astaxanthin enhance (i.e. deepen) red/orange/pink coloration, and foods with spirulina in them are supposed to enhance blue/green colors (and according to one company in Japan, yellow too).

There are other things (like beet root, for example) that enhance coloration too, but the astaxanthin and spirulina are the most commonly used in the hobby.

Yeah, some things that can impact a fish's coloration (leaving a few irrelevant factors out of the conversation):
-Light (wavelength, intensity, and duration)
-Health
-Diet (including both vitamins, minerals, etc. and pigments like astaxanthin in a fish's diet)
-Various chemicals and hormones
-Genetics

Some things that affect a fish's coloration are immediate (like stress) while others (like lighting and diet) can take much, much longer to make a noticeable difference. It's possible that this tang's coloration is a result of some of those less-immediate factors, so it may take a while for it to change.

For an example of the difference pigments in a fish's diet can make:
https://nhrec.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/vdocuments.net_clownfish-astaxanthin-study-reed-mariculture-astaxanthin-level-average-preference.pdf For an example of the difference that lighting can make:

Does Lighting Affect Your Fish

About 4 months ago I got 3 Captive Bred Goldflake Angels from Bali Aquarich. In the acclimation bucket one was slightly bigger than the other 2 and started kicking butt. So I tossed him into one of the outdoor frag tanks. The other 2 went into the 750g display tank. One that went into the 750...

www.reef2reef.com

Yes, it has been demonstrated on a number of different fish both internally (like salmon) and externally (such as red tilapia* and other species listed in the block quote below), a few different inverts, and even flamingos.** It seems to primarily be a reddening agent (though it has been shown to have some other positive effects too), yes.

"Astaxanthin has been shown to promote growth and skin pigmentation in flame-red dwarf gourami Trichogaster lalius (Baron et al., 2008), blood parrotfish Cichlasoma synspilum × C. citrinellum (Li et al., 2018), green swordtail Xiphophorus helleri (Putra et al., 2020), discus fish Symphysodon (Song et al., 2017), rainbow kurumoifish Melanotaenia parva (Meilisza et al., 2018), and red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Cheng and Wu, 2019)."***

A similar effect has been noted for other colors with things like Spirulina (different carotenoids involved though).****

*Source:

Effects of dietary astaxanthin enrichment on enhancing the colour and growth of red tilapia, Oreochromis sp.

The aim of this research was to examine the effects of dietary inclusion of astaxanthin from Haematococcus pluvialis in commercial fish feed on the co…

www.sciencedirect.com

**Source:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312056401_Flamingo_coloration_and_its_significance

***Source:

Effect of dietary astaxanthin on growth, body color, biochemical parameters and transcriptome profiling of juvenile blood parrotfish (Vieja melanurus ♀ × Amphilophus citrinellus ♂)

To investigate the effects of dietary astaxanthin on fish growth and body color, blood parrotfish juveniles were assigned to three groups: control (CL…

www.sciencedirect.com

****Sources:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349318472_Effect_of_Spirulina_Flour_on_Changes_of_Color_Intensity_in_Angelfish_Pterophyllum_scalare_Strain_Three_Color

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316959770_EFFECTS_OF_SPIRULINA_POWDER_IN_COLOURATION_AND_GROWTH_ENHANCEMENT_OF_AN_INDIGENOUS_ORNAMENTAL_FISH_TRICHOGASTER_LALIUS

For an idea of some of the other things that have been/can potentially be used to improve coloration (use cautiously - too much of a lot of these can cause problems):

Color Enhancers [Archive] - SimplyDiscus

Always looking for an edge. In my studies of what is currently used to enhance color I dug deeper into Spirulina. If u want to see a movie on how it is made here ya go. Also look to the side for more links about it as well. http://www.spirulinasource.com/movies.html BTW. Here is my current...

forum.simplydiscus.com

 

[Cthulukelele]

I've been meaning to look more into this, but the most common ones at the moment are astaxanthin (reds) and spirulina (blue/green).





For an idea of some of the other things that have been/can potentially be used to improve coloration (use cautiously - too much of a lot of these can cause problems):

Color Enhancers [Archive] - SimplyDiscus

Always looking for an edge. In my studies of what is currently used to enhance color I dug deeper into Spirulina. If u want to see a movie on how it is made here ya go. Also look to the side for more links about it as well. http://www.spirulinasource.com/movies.html BTW. Here is my current...

forum.simplydiscus.com

Some of the most common ways to deliver these to your fish are PE Calanus for reds and SFB Spirulina enriched brine for greens.

 

[homer1475]

TDO Chromoboost.