I was wondering what kind of foods you guys feed your fishies to enhance their color to the maximum? I recently got some roselines and have been feeding them a variety of flakes, 1mm pellets and occasionally some sinking tablets. I've had them for say 3-4 weeks and haven't noticed much improvement in their color, maybe it's that they're still young but who knows.
I picked up some frozen blood worms and spirulina fed brine shrimp and plan on seeing what will happen to their color.
Nothing has made my fish colour up more than a good diet of live and frozen food. My homemade food (which its just a blend of veggies and live food) does a real good job as well.
Aside from live food, there are some staple foods that enhance color such as TetraColor and Sera San. I personally have experience with Sera San and it work as advertised but pricey though.
Live foods tend to be fatty and protein-rich. Not a very balanced diet. Definitely need to shake things up a bit instead of feeding only live or frozen foods.
I personally feed my fish something different at each feeding. Live foods when conditioning for breeding are more frequent. Normally, just once or twice a week. Then alternate a few different kinds of pellets, flake, seaweed, et al.
For most fish live worms and infects are the natural diet, and more balanced than most people think, it really is going to depend on what the prey item eats before they are fed to the fish, my earthworms are fed extremely well and in turn feed the fish very well, I also put blanched organic zucchini in the tank that all the fish not just my plecos go nuts over. So if you want super healthy fish fresh veggies and well fed worms is a good route, if you are worried about "balance" feed a high quality veggie based flake like that of ocean nutrition type 2 flake, and mostly live worms and your fish especially rose lines will love you. Also chopping the worms is a good idea
Over do it on the boiling it makes it stringy, also spinach, but my worms eat spinach and other veggies which eventually get to my fish. There is nothing better than live, it's why it's so good for breeding but why limit it to breeding when benefits are so obvious, fish can be fed a lot less often when using live infact I recommend you feed less if you do. Reg wigglerz and full size earthworms are super easy and eat soil and decaying vegetables and plant matter, I highly recommend them and you can even grow plants in their enclosure for your tanks
Also recommend breeding worms like they are in a clean room, sterilize tubs every few weeks and move the existing ecosystem to another tub, wash worms and inspect them closely, I cut mine for more than making it easier to eat. Not to mention worms are fun to keep in themselves and it is soooooo hard to crash a earthworm culture
I use a variety of Ken's food I got here from Bsmith, New Life Spectrum Thera + A is a 1mm sinking pellet with garlic to help with internal parisites and the Cherry Barbs love it, I also use Hikari Algae wafers, Deep Blue Algae Wafers ans sinking pellets, and San Francisco frozen brine shrimp weekly as a treat, as for all the dry foods I mix the flake together, same with the pellets, etc.
It's good if it makes them eat it, I feed daily but I would do 2-3 times weekly for the roselines if they are full sized each one can do half a full sized red wiggler. I would only feed daily if your flow keeps your fish constantly active. I have very high flow when it comes to fresh water. Your mileage will vary but I would start breeding worms, super easy to do
You would be surprised how easy works are, I'm just crazy about keeping clean environments for food, you can set and forget maybe a spray every few weeks and harvest whenever
Organic rich soil moist to where it clumps, but not able to squeeze a drop out, and feed once in a while with veggies rich in minerals and vitamins like spinach carrot shavings etc, spirulina, even ground oats and fruits
It is nearly impossible to get a sterile culture however some vermiculite stores have lab grade worms. Also miracle grow should be fine as log as it is organic, I have also used peat moss, keeps the container pretty clean because of the anti microbial properties of the peat. Just spray once in a while and you're good
Spirulina and anything made from krill. Spirulina helps bring out the reds in fish.
Hikari has foods that usually brings out the color.
I feed Hikari Marine-A and Ocean Nutrition Formula 2 pellets to my f/w fish because it's way too much food for the s/w tank.
Anyway, these Silver Dollars I had for more htan 5 years colored up around the fins and their black or red spots are more noticable. I have 3 distinct kind of SD just sold under the generic SD common name.
Forgot to mention: Repashy foods are MAGIC for coloration. Absolutely magic.
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