Improve Flame Angelfish Color

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Is there something for other colors like blues, purples, and yellows?

Foods with astaxanthin enhance (i.e. deepen) red/orange/pink coloration, and foods with spirulina in them are supposed to enhance blue/green colors (and according to one company in Japan, yellow too). Basically, the more of each of these two color enhancers you add, the deeper and darker the coloration. Between the two, you should hit just about every color. There are other things (like beet root, for example) that enhance coloration too, but the astaxanthin and spirulina are the most commonly used in the hobby.

As a note here, in a study on clownfish coloration, the preferred amount of astaxanthin (as determined subjectively by 6 pet store owners/managers) was 400ppm as determined by the dry weight of the food.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

Foods with astaxanthin enhance (i.e. deepen) red/orange/pink coloration, and foods with spirulina in them are supposed to enhance blue/green colors (and according to one company in Japan, yellow too). Basically, the more of each of these two color enhancers you add, the deeper and darker the coloration. Between the two, you should hit just about every color. There are other things (like beet root, for example) that enhance coloration too, but the astaxanthin and spirulina are the most commonly used in the hobby.

As a note here, in a study on clownfish coloration, the preferred amount of astaxanthin (as determined subjectively by 6 pet store owners/managers) was 400ppm as determined by the dry weight of the food.

Thanks for the info. I put in an order for both additives.

Any recommendations as to how often to add? I have an auto feeder doing the daily 4x dry pellets feed. Should I replace 1-2 feedings with the additives? would it be good to add with all frozen feeds? And how soon can be expected to see results?

 

[Feartheturtle!22]

Hi, Yes your fish have gorgeous color. One thing I've read is that fast freezing especially vegetables as for human consumption, helps to maintain more vitamins, nutrients over even fresh picked. Maybe this message was started by our local power company? Anyway, my #1 color food for bringing out the red-yellow pigments is Tetra's Freeze-Dried Krill. Works on my fish and my turtles and they love it. You can see the heavy carotenoid build up in the krill's tissues.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks for the info. I put in an order for both additives.

Any recommendations as to how often to add? I have an auto feeder doing the daily 4x dry pellets feed. Should I replace 1-2 feedings with the additives? would it be good to add with all frozen feeds? And how soon can be expected to see results?

You can add them as often as you want honestly - astaxanthin is found in tons of oceanic feeders (krill, some shrimp, pacific salmon, Tigger pods, etc.), and spirulina is actually used in a bunch of different marine foods as well as the aquaculture of some marine species, so they're both totally safe. How much and how often you feed really just depends on how fast and intensively you want to deepen the colors. The more you use, the faster the color should change and the deeper the color should go.

Regarding how soon you'll see results, it depends on how much you feed, but the clownfish study I mentioned took place over the course of a year. So, if I had to guess, if you fed relatively heavy doses you could probably start seeing results using before and after photos within 6-12 weeks or so.

 

[OrionN]

Fish food just don’t get the care they would get if it is human fish. Variety if good food is the key. There are some great frozen food, but in general I find that frozen food is not so good for my fish other than supplement food.

 

[Nate Chalk]

Thanks for the info. I put in an order for both additives.

Any recommendations as to how often to add? I have an auto feeder doing the daily 4x dry pellets feed. Should I replace 1-2 feedings with the additives? would it be good to add with all frozen feeds? And how soon can be expected to see results?

Both are in my slop I mix up

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

These are my parameters. I'll grab a picture tomorrow, lights are out at the moment.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

Here's some images of the angelfish. As you can see the forehead and along the top of the back have gotten this dark "peppering" affect and makes the angel look dirty.

 

[davidcalgary29]

...

 

[Midrats]

Pretty fish. I was half kidding with my light comment. Red fish look much more red under daylight conditions. In bluer conditions they look black by design.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

It's the best photo I could get, the flame is the most skittish fish in there for some reason and makes it impossible to take a photo. I got a yellow filter on the phone when taking the photos.

The dark patches at the forehead and back is more prominent in person. The color is more of a pale orange and the belly area pale yellow. My Pixel phone's post processing seems to be adding more color than it looks.

Other than the color and dark discoloring that seems to be spreading, this skittish specimen is healthy from what I can tell.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

So I've been feeding frozen by mixing both the red and green powders. However, I'm finding it just disperses the moment it hits the water. How do I mix it so that the powders stick to the mysis/bs. I event tried letting some sit in the fridge overnight, but I didn't like the smell the next day so am afraid to feed it to the fish.

I haven't tried coating the pellets as the moment they get wet they start sticking or falling apart.

How do you feed these powder supplements?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Well, hopefully someone with more experience/better ideas will chime in, but some of the methods that I've heard include the following:

- Put the food in a zip lock bag, add water, seal the bag, and flip the bag over and over on a counter for a couple of minutes. After that, flip the bag over a few more times every few minutes. After ~10 minutes let the bag sit ~2 hours. They say that if you added the right amount of water, then the feed can be squeezed with your finger to the consistency of firm clay. If you've added too much water, then the feed will mushy, and if you haven't added enough, then the feed will largely still be dry. They recommended a roughly 1 to 3 ratio of water to feed, but noted it will likely change based on the feed used.

- Mix the powder with some water and basically spray or drizzle it onto the pellets, then either let it dry naturally or bake it at low temps to help it dry.

- Similar to the method above, mix the powder with some water into a paste, add the pellets to the mix and either let it dry naturally or bake it at low temps to help it dry.

- Mix the powder with gelatin to basically make a gel paste to spread on the pellets (possibly also baking at low temps to dry out again).

- Powder the pellets, mix the pellet powder with the supplement (spirulina, astaxanthin, etc.) powder, and turn the mix into either a new pellet, a gel food, or a frozen food to feed. (This method and the method below would likely be quite difficult to get the sizing right - with the other methods, if the supplemented feed is too large, you can just switch to smaller pellets to supplement.)

- Turn the supplement powder into a pellet or gel food and feed separately.

That's all I've got for now.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

That's a lot of options. I will give either #2 or #3 a try. I like that since I could still use the auto feeder once dried. Than you!

 

[OrionN]

Or you can Just get better dry food. Get Otohime pellets. You can order it from reef Mariculture.
Here is a review of this food by the late Jake Adams. I feed my fish mostly Otohime fish food. You can get these imported from Japan by Reed Mariculture. I think this is the great part of my fish have beautiful colorations. You can certainly see the color of my fishes from all of my photos.

Jake Adams review of Otohime fish food from Reed Mariculture

Reed Mariculture

I am not affiliated with Reed Mariculture in anyway, other then been their customer. I normally buy 2 kg of food at a time and keep it in my freezer and it last me for a year or two.
My Male Flame angel that have been in my tank for years.

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

Or you can Just get better dry food. Get Otohime pellets. You can order it from reef Mariculture.
Here is a review of this food by the late Jake Adams. I feed my fish mostly Otohime fish food. You can get these imported from Japan by Reed Mariculture. I think this is the great part of my fish have beautiful colorations. You can certainly see the color of my fishes from all of my photos.

Jake Adams review of Otohime fish food from Reed Mariculture

Reed Mariculture

Thank you! I've jotted down TDO chromoboost and will add your recommendation as well. Thing is I have a couple bags of the Hikari I feed currently - a trusted name in freshwater so I stick with it. TDO chromoboost seems to spoil if not refrigerated after opening so I assume shelf life may not be that long. I'll try to coat the Hikari feed I have with the powders until I go through them and then try your recommendations.

 

[Tcook]

Where is this flame angel from? Are the flames available now (Marshall Islands) less red and more orange than the ones sourced from Hawaii?

 

[Chee-tomorpha]

I forget where it came from, for sure it's not a true Hawaiian flame. I have read that they are more red with very little orange, but have never seen one in person. I think it's from Christmas or marshall island, got it from online vendor.