Color Enhancing Foods

Max Power

New Member
I was wondering if anyone used color enhancing foods. When I kept discus I made them food with anasthaxin (NatuRose) to bring out the reds... and it did the job well.
 

Max Power

New Member
I just mashed all my shrimp (and sometimes beefheart) up and added a couple spoons of NatuRose to it. Anasthaxin (NatuRose) is a powder that is similar to spirulina, it's a micro algae grown in Hawaii. I've also used it with my dart frogs, I dusted the fruit flies with it... it will bring red/yellow out in anything :D
 

protoxeno

New Member
ohh so thats why those flies where white in colour. Just wondering, where do you get fruit flies? lol did you catch them?
 

ninjaturtle

New Member
also depending on what kind of fish you are feeding it to, some fish will have great colors regardless of how much color enhancer you give it. for fish like arowanas i think the genes plays the major part, enhancer will not really do much. i think the greatest effect it has is on african cichlids as majority of the ppl use it for them.
 

Max Power

New Member
ohh so thats why those flies where white in colour. Just wondering, where do you get fruit flies? lol did you catch them?

I picked up a culture from the breeder who I buy my frogs from. Fruit flies reproduce very easily, once you get one culture you're set. I thought I would also mention the flies are flightless.
 
For my africans I swear by New Life Spectrum, have even heard of people feeding it to their aro's. By far the best food I have come across yet.
 

ninjaturtle

New Member
I read lots of books and keep saying centipede is pretty good for all kinds of red arowanas. I never try it personally!!

Just a quick link of other types of food. Enjoy!!

http://web.singnet.com.sg/~lin1629/Food.html

according to books yes, according to ppl whose tried it, no. lol
ive never tried it but i hear ppl say there's not much difference besides that its really expensive. i think its high in protein tho, but price wise u prob better off with SW or MP. n i dono anywhere in canada that sells it.. in Hong Kong they sell them in water bottles... 1 centipede per water bottle.. quite a scene when theres like hundreds of them stacked up
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
I remember when I lived in Seoul, Korea seeing live centipedes (big ones like 25 cm long) being dropped in bottles of whiskey, and then sold (while still swimming around) to office men on their way home from work to their wives. Apparently it is an aphrodisiac! Heh, whatever works! :D

I know the vitamin Beta Carotene (responsible for the orange in carrots) will have an affect on colour. A long time ago they used to sell tanning pills for people, which were basically Beta Carotene. The pills would actually turn you an orange colour (not quite the same as a tan!).

I know there is some Beta Carotene in shrimp shells, and so it is popular to feed adult aros Market prawn with shells on. Wouldn't do it with a younger aro though as I have heard choking horror stories! :eek:
 

ninjaturtle

New Member
I remember when I lived in Seoul, Korea seeing live centipedes (big ones like 25 cm long) being dropped in bottles of whiskey, and then sold (while still swimming around) to office men on their way home from work to their wives. Apparently it is an aphrodisiac! Heh, whatever works! :D

I know the vitamin Beta Carotene (responsible for the orange in carrots) will have an affect on colour. A long time ago they used to sell tanning pills for people, which were basically Beta Carotene. The pills would actually turn you an orange colour (not quite the same as a tan!).

I know there is some Beta Carotene in shrimp shells, and so it is popular to feed adult aros Market prawn with shells on. Wouldn't do it with a younger aro though as I have heard choking horror stories! :eek:

with younger aros i always just feed them the shrimp legs, contains the shell, its soft, and has some meat in there too.

yea 1 time my grandma got bitten by one and she had to goto the hospital in critical conditions, it wasn't 25cm but it was around 7"... big enough to kill u i guess lol

aphrodisiac? haha man.. if i saw that thing... i think ill be pretty turned off not on. crazy asian men
 

Alx

New Member
Just curies would something like beef-hart for discus work, as I make that all the time for my fish?
 

frozen-fire

New Member
Do people use naturose for their reds?

For my africans I use New Life Spectrum as well. The fish seem to love it. I hear that Dainichi does wonders for african cichlid coluors, but have yet to actually use it.
 

Max Power

New Member
Just curies would something like beef-hart for discus work, as I make that all the time for my fish?

Beefheart is by far the best food for raising juvie discus. The high protein is exactly what discus need at that age to grow as fast as possible. I don't like feeding beefheart to adult discus though because it will shorten their lifespan. Although beefheart is the leanest meat you can get with regards to beef, it still has too much fat. Fish can't process that type of fat well, fat will build up resulting in an early death.

Beefheart wont enhance colour if you don't add anything to it though.

Sorry, I hope that answers your question... I'm not sure if I understood it correctly :eek:

Do people use naturose for their reds?

For my africans I use New Life Spectrum as well. The fish seem to love it. I hear that Dainichi does wonders for african cichlid coluors, but have yet to actually use it.

Yes Naturose is used for reds, oranges, and yellows. You really can't beat it for natural red colour enhancement IMO.
 

Alx

New Member
I should clarify, I breed discuses, and as I plan to add Arowana or three to my collection of fish, would juvenile Arowana benefit from the same diet as young discuses. My mix is 4 parts beef-hart, 4 parts krill and two parts shrimp, garlic, sea-weed, vitamins and flake-food (tetra flakes) to bind mix.
 

ninjaturtle

New Member
Just curies would something like beef-hart for discus work, as I make that all the time for my fish?

hey try to give it white meat instead of red meat, would be more of a natural good souce. aros get red meat not too often. mainly insects, fish, n shrimp
 

Alx

New Member
No worries, thanks for the reply.
I'll try shrimp mix when my first fish gets here (I am starting with Green Arowana to test waters).
 
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