Specialty Shrimp Food and Color in CRS

Well, most of them do include algae and small crustacaens, which may contain Astaxanthin, which has been shown to increase red in salmon and in shrimp and is used as a color additive. I'm sure there's a scientific basis, but the question is how much of an advantage do these special color food have over say.. Ken's veggie sticks or Hikari algae wafers. How much more Astaxanthin?

This is all going off wiki and I'm not cite checking,

Currently, the primary natural source for astaxanthin is the microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis.[14] It seems to accumulate the highest levels of astaxanthin in nature;[15] Commercially more than 40 g of astaxanthin can be obtained from one kg of dry biomass.[16]

Click to expand...

Source Astaxanthin concentration (ppm)[13]
Salmonids ~ 5
Plankton ~ 60
Krill ~ 120
Arctic shrimp (P borealis) ~ 1,200
Phaffia yeast ~ 10,000
Haematococcus pluvialis ~ 40,000


Im reading both Borneo and Mosura use astaxanthin additives in their lines. Borneo Pro Color FISH has astaxanthin listed, but NOT SHHRIMP.

Not sure about Ken's. Where's my chemists at, someone do a compositional analysis now!

For as cheap as specialty foods are, you might as well get a whole bunch and just cover all your bases. If I am capable of spending 350 bucks per PRL shrimp then I should be able to buy 7 different cans of 10 dollar foods. I am having amazing success with some high and medium grade PRL shrimp.....I pretty much went out and bought tons of different foods.

To answer the OP's question: Yes, I definitely do notice the color of my shrimp is more intense when I feed certain foods. BorneoWild Stout seems to bring out the best colors in my CRS/CBS.

I am sure you can get by feeding PETCO foods and various algae wafers but "getting by" is not good enough for me. Food is way too cheap to skimp out on. One of the best features about shrimp food is that it does not break down in water the way some fish foods do. They stay solid for hours. I generally throw in some food before the gym and then take it out with giant tweezers as soon as I get back...it goes in the trash right away.

On a side note...I have not had a shrimp death in about half a year aside from one crazy one which decided to climb out into my filter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_pigment#Pigments_in_marine_animals

Don't know why it says astaxanthin in marine animals is responsible for purple-blue/green, maybe different light spectrum or someone misquote the source, /shrug.

http://www.algatech.com/products-item.asp?cat=001_

"Astaxanthin, a member of the carotenoid family, it is a dark red pigment and the main carotenoid found in algae and aquatic animals. It is responsible for the red/pink coloration of crustaceans, shellfish, and the flesh of salmonoids. . . Astaxanthin (3,3’-dihydroxy-β-β-carotene-4,4’-dione) is a xanthophyll carotenoid, commonly found in marine environments where it gives an orange-pink coloration to several sea-species."


Either way it's different expression in fresh vs. marine environments. Probably vary between species too. There are other carotenoids responsible for other expressions too, vary from species to species, and not all can process/exhibit it. But astaxanthin is the most common.