Color Enhancing Foods Comparison
by Christian B. Homrich Jr.,
SouthWestern Michigan Aquarium Society. From SWAM, May/June 2004 Issue
Aquarticles
As a test of a few different color enhancing foods available to the tropical fish
hobby, I decided it was time to let other hobbyists view my findings. But before I mention
the differences I had found here in my home, I wanted to give a short description of how I
had my tanks set up for this test. I had a tank that had thirty Metriaclima estherae
fry that were exactly thirty days old from the time of release from the female parent
fish’s mouth. Since I had six open 20-gallon tall tanks I thought it would be a great
time to try out a few of the commercially available fish foods that claim to enhance the
fish’s natural colors, along with a slight boost in growth rate. Each tank was set up
identical to the others. All were bare bottom, housed five juvenile M. estherae
fry, a 15-watt cool white fluorescent light, versa top lids, and small sponge filters that
were purchased on the same day from the same supplier. All food used for this test was
weighed out using a freshly serviced scale to provide optimum accuracy.
After three months of feeding the M. Estherae groups different color enhancing
flakes and pellets here are the results:
-The five that were fed Staple flake, mixed 50/50 with spirulina stayed the same (light
orange to almost yellow females and a very, very light blue male).
-The five that were fed HBH color bright and spirulina, (50/50 mix) were deeper red
than all the others, but were slightly smaller (females were dark orange to a deep red and
the male was deep orange with light blue fins).
-The five on Kens color flake mixed 50/50 with spirulina were close to the color as the
ones fed HBH color bright, but were slightly larger than that group.
-The five that were fed OSI color flake, mixed 50/50 with spirulina were slightly
deeper red than the control group (fed just staple) and were the same size. The males
showed no improvement and they were all about the same size as they started.
-The five that were on Aquaricare color flakes, mixed 50/50 with spirulina were much
larger than the others except the ones fed with New Life Spectrum foods, but were slightly
deeper red than the ones fed OSI vivid color flake. The male showed no improvement at all.
-And finally the five that were fed New Life Spectrum and spirulina, mixed 50/50 were
brighter than the rest, but not as red as the ones fed HBH color bright and spirulina.
Females had a nice red color, but the males were a very very bright blue. The fish gained
almost twice the amount of growth for the month then all the others.
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