Buyer's Remorse

[Proteus]

Just keep it. Get itfat and healthy. Then decide it its what you want. At least then you can sell a healthy ugly fish

[mrhasan]

Adam. You worry too much with the tank! That's the best advice anyone can give to you

[toytech]

Could it just be stress coloration? Apparantly they pale when water conditions are less than ideal . Id say fatten him up and wait to see what happens with the color , it might brighten up.

[BlueTang<3]

Feed it a good quality food, lots of vitamins or the colour enhancing stuff, typically as the fish ages the colours come in better as well but diet plays a large roll on looks.

[Reef_Geek]

the secret ingredient for colouring up fish is astaxanthin.

actually, it's not really a secret.

Flamingos get their colour from krill, many fish foods contain Spirulina, aquaculture uses salmon skin in formulated foods etc etc... I've seen FW swordtails fed so much of this stuff, you cut the fish and the flesh is bright red inside.

Try prolonged feeding using fresh macro-algae and/or make your own foods (search threads such as this one) and add lots of salmon skin.

[Reef_Geek]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

the secret ingredient for colouring up fish is astaxanthin.

actually, it's not really a secret.

Flamingos get their colour from krill, many fish foods contain Spirulina, aquaculture uses salmon skin in formulated foods etc etc... I've seen FW swordtails fed so much of this stuff, you cut the fish and the flesh is bright red inside.

Try prolonged feeding using fresh macro-algae and/or make your own foods (search threads such as this one) and add lots of salmon skin.

maybe it's not clear... but all those foods I mentioned, Spirulina, krill, salmon skin... all have high levels of natural astaxanthin, so long as they are fresh & raw.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

maybe it's not clear... but all those foods I mentioned, Spirulina, krill, salmon skin... all have high levels of natural astaxanthin, so long as they are fresh & raw.

Actually I mix all you mentioned above and few other ingredients as some are fresh and some freeze dried to all my fish and a slight different recipe for my corals for few years now,some of the best coloration and health I seen

[asylumdown]

It was next to impossible to get a good picture of him with my fangled lights, but you can see how his face isn't jet black like some PBTs, the black on his tail is really washed out, and he's got practically no white framing his face. In fact it might not be that his face is any less black, it might just be the absence of bright white around it that makes it look that way.



Say compared to this photo I stole off the internet, which is what all the PBTs I saw in Ocean Creation recently looked like. I'm also now just noticing that my guy's fins on the bottom part of his body are the same colours as the fins on the top, whereas in other PBTs they're snow white.



Are those things that can change, or even affected by diet?

ETA: you can see my very preggers daddy Bangai cardinal in the background of the first pic!

[Reef_Geek]

Originally Posted by eli@fijireefrock.com

Actually I mix all you mentioned above and few other ingredients as some are fresh and some freeze dried to all my fish and a slight different recipe for my corals for few years now,some of the best coloration and health I seen

I don't have enough fish to justify making my own batches. Yet, I'm like many others, miss the Ocean Nutrition formulated gelatin foods. I wonder if there's any 'appetite' (get it? ha... ha... ) for LFS to make house blends for sale...

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

Feed it a good quality food, lots of vitamins or the colour enhancing stuff, typically as the fish ages the colours come in better as well but diet plays a large roll on looks.

there is a lot of vitamins and minerals for a better color and health on fish as they get it from the wild witch we do not have in our systems...best bet is mix your own food or find a good quality food.