Best fish food for color

[SeaCilla1212]

Hello everyone. I'm almost out of fish food which is formula one and formula two pellets and I wanted to try something different this time. I noticed the color of my foxface sort of fading lately it's not as yellow as it once was. So I was wondering if u guys could give me some good advice on some good color enhancing fish foods that u guys know of. Thank you!

 

[CoralJunkie]

Give em a hoagie dude

 

[PSU4ME]

I use Larry's reef food (UA carries it) and new life spectrum pellets and I think both of them do a great job for color and health.

 

[mnavick]

Live black worms

 

[SeaCilla1212]

Any flake foods that's good for color?

 

[saltwaterB]

Mike, I hate to say it but black worms are actually not good to feed SW Fish...they are very low in nutritional value and most often harbor lots of bad pathogen...and not something SW Fish would find in their natural environment
Although, they are great to get some finicky Fish to start eating...they should not be used as a mainstay in the fishes diet...I have read a few articles that actually claim it can be detrimental to the Fishes health.
Ideally the color of the Fish would come from the health of the Fish...not some hormones added to food to increase coloration
Best thing possible you could do for a Fishes health is to feed as large a variety of foods a possible......this will ensure that the animal gets a better representation of its actual nutritional needs. and also won't get bored or tired with the food... Hey, I love sushi, but could not eat it every day (just every other day...lol)

And with the fish in question...algae based foods are going to be very important, as Foxface are Omnivores that need a heavy Herbivore diet to be really healthy...as they graze on lots of algae in the wild, along with feeding on zooplanktons.

Personally I like to mix and change up foods often. Here is a list of food that I fed out regularly to our Fish, and feel their quality of ingredients is excellent.

Frozen:
Larry's Reef food
Hikari Brine Shrimp with spirulina
Hikari Mysis Shrimp
Hikari Ocean Plankton
Hikari Krill
Hikari Squid
Hikari Silverside
Hikari Clam on the half shell
Hikari Baby Brine Shrimp
Argent Cyclop-eeze
San Francisco Emerald Entrée


Dry:
Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery diet
New Life Spectrum Flake and Pellet food
Seachem Chlorella Flake food
Ocean Nutrition Formula Foods pellet and flake
Dried radiation free Nori/Seaweed


We mix all of these weekly and continually change the blend up to offer a huge variety...this is exactly what we feed to all of our Fish and Corals (with a few special secret things that I add to it...lol)

 

[SeaCilla1212]

Mike, I hate to say it but black worms are actually not good to feed SW Fish...they are very low in nutritional value and most often harbor lots of bad pathogen...and not something SW Fish would find in their natural environment
Although, they are great to get some finicky Fish to start eating...they should not be used as a mainstay in the fishes diet...I have read a few articles that actually claim it can be detrimental to the Fishes health.
Ideally the color of the Fish would come from the health of the Fish...not some hormones added to food to increase coloration
Best thing possible you could do for a Fishes health is to feed as large a variety of foods a possible......this will ensure that the animal gets a better representation of its actual nutritional needs. and also won't get bored or tired with the food... Hey, I love sushi, but could not eat it every day (just every other day...lol)

And with the fish in question...algae based foods are going to be very important, as Foxface are Omnivores that need a heavy Herbivore diet to be really healthy...as they graze on lots of algae in the wild, along with feeding on zooplanktons.

Personally I like to mix and change up foods often. Here is a list of food that I fed out regularly to our Fish, and feel their quality of ingredients is excellent.

Frozen:
Larry's Reef food
Hikari Brine Shrimp with spirulina
Hikari Mysis Shrimp
Hikari Ocean Plankton
Hikari Krill
Hikari Squid
Hikari Silverside
Hikari Clam on the half shell
Hikari Baby Brine Shrimp
Argent Cyclop-eeze
San Francisco Emerald Entrée


Dry:
Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery diet
New Life Spectrum Flake and Pellet food
Seachem Chlorella Flake food
Ocean Nutrition Formula Foods pellet and flake
Dried radiation free Nori/Seaweed


We mix all of these weekly and continually change the blend up to offer a huge variety...this is exactly what we feed to all of our Fish and Corals (with a few special secret things that I add to it...lol)

Thanx B for taking the time to write that out. Very helpful!! Can I order that all online or is it sold somewhere special?

 

[saltwaterB]

I am sure that any good Aquarium shop (hopefully a BRS sponsor) will carry some if not all of these...If you have to I am sure you can order it online somewhere....but you should support your LFS over some online guy....lol

 

[mnavick]

Couldn't agree with B more
While black worms are great for finicky eaters they do help increase color with the downside of nutrition.

What I usually do once a month is buy a multitude of frozen items (squid, clam, mysyis, redworms, krill and shrimp), thaw, rinse, mix all together and refreeze. This makes a nice homemade concoction similar to the fish goo at our monthly meetings
I also have a bunch of Rogers Reef Food and bulk supply of Nori!

 

[dannyp02908]

Idk. I feed my fish ( a foxface, couple tangs, clowns, bangaii, damsel) omega 1 flakes only. Nothing special. Fish are healthy and colorful.

 

[saltwaterB]

Idk. I feed my fish ( a foxface, couple tangs, clowns, bangaii, damsel) omega 1 flakes only. Nothing special. Fish are healthy and colorful.

How long have you had these Fish??? as that is a very basic diet for the Tangs and Foxface... I would imagine that long term without some supplements that you will have issues with HLLE and other Nutritional deficiencies. I may be wrong but in my 24+ years of experience dealing with these animals every single day, I would recommend starting to vary their diet a bit....

 

[dannyp02908]

3+ years. I'm not recommending it. Just saying that a lack of color isn't necessarily diet related. I know you have been in the hobby and business a long time. But I have yet to see issues related to diet personally. And this isn't my first aquarium.

 

[saltwaterB]

Not trying to bash you or anything...just trying to educate as a whole...and I could never in good conscience let that kind of info go un answered...while it may work fine for you...that is WAY out of the norm, and overall probably not a great idea.

Also, it can take years before most people start experiencing HLLE in Angels and Tangs in captivity, and on of the very well known reasons for HLLE is nutritional deficiencies...that is all I am getting at...

It is almost like your are not treating the inmates unfair...lol Would you like it if I only allowed you to eat cereal...and imagine if it was not your favorite cereal....for three years....


all I am getting at, is if we want to provide the best possible captive environment for our animals, we should be attempting to duplicate their natural environment as best as possible...and a big part of that is a varied diet. (among many other aspects)

I would hope that we are all doing our best to give these animals the absolute best life possible in our little pieces of the ocean.

 

[lex_lutha111384]

Amen. I feed brine, mysis, pellet, flake, and silversides (too my nems) on an alternate scedule. I also drop in some garlic xtreme once a week. Is this good B? I have always been a little ignorant when it came to properly feeding fish.

 

[JohnK]

Hey B,

What are your thoughts about misc natural foods that self sustain in a reef tank? (at least in the case of a reef tank with a light fish load). I thought it was considered somewhat common for HLLE to stop and then even disappear when an affected fish was moved to a healthy reef. Naturally no heavily stocked tank is going to keep up with much of it's fishes needs, but I wonder how much natural food is possible/likely, and how much nutritional value there might be there in your average mature reef tank.

 

[reefstarter]

I agree on many things here , I've seen B's fish and they all look awesome , I've seen thm feed this concoction to The tanks at UA and actually will be needing some fish food at end of week , I'll pay extra if some of that secret formula is put together for me ) Hint hint B lol

 

[saltwaterB]

John,

IMO/IME it really depends on the Fish we are talking about and the particular tank....in the right tank anything is possible...This has been proven time and time again. For instance, Justin Credabel found he had a bacterium growing in his tank that was sustaining Goniopora for years...(It is now part of the TLF GoniPower zooplankton food)...Many people keep tanks with just a pair of MAndarin and no other Fish...and I have heard of success with no additional feeding what so ever. So really it would depend ont he particular species of Fish...but everything I know about Angels and Tangs points the finger at nutritional deficiencies as one of the biggest contributors to HLLE (not the only obviously) but definitely long term, there are plenty of documented articles about varied diets for closer to natural nutritional value. Remember we are keeping bony Reef Fish, that have a high metabolism, and generally hunt/graze on miles of potential territory all day long...and we are confining them to a 3'----6' space. I just don't personally think it is possible for the tank itself to sustain certain species of Fish
When I was at the Long Island Aquarium, and got to see Joe feed the 20,000 gallon Reef....OMG!!!! the amount and variety of food the he put in was just insane...every day an entire freezer bar of Cyclop-eeze... ::


Reefstarter....I have no idea what you are talking about lol

all except for a few secret ingredients....lol

 

[saltwaterB]

Amen. I feed brine, mysis, pellet, flake, and silversides (too my nems) on an alternate scedule. I also drop in some garlic xtreme once a week. Is this good B? I have always been a little ignorant when it came to properly feeding fish.

definitely a good mix there....I would only suggest that your Brine be a brine that is fortified with Spirulina Algae. Otherwise regular Brine Shrimp is just like a protein potato chip.

 

[saltwaterB]

Couldn't agree with B more
While black worms are great for finicky eaters they do help increase color with the downside of nutrition.

What I usually do once a month is buy a multitude of frozen items (squid, clam, mysyis, redworms, krill and shrimp), thaw, rinse, mix all together and refreeze. This makes a nice homemade concoction similar to the fish goo at our monthly meetings
I also have a bunch of Rogers Reef Food and bulk supply of Nori!

NICE!!!!

and I love the little cubes you made with the egg crate....so stealing this idea...lol

 

[phg1960]

+1 on the egg crate idea. I've been looking at all sorts of specialty kitchen stores for mini ice cube trays. Never thought of using egg crate!