How do you get maximum colors from your fish?

[wwildcats04]

subdued... I have the same fish... beautiful isnt it! I have noticed that when it is in the shadows and such that he is just that much more beautiful!

 

[RTR]

Irridescence depends on the angles at which the light strikes the fish. I cheat on my Dwarf Neon Rainbow tanks and tilt the front strip just a little bit toward the back of the tank - which increases the Bling! factor substantially.

Water change should not be stressful for the fish at all. That situation could only arise if the water had been abused by being ignored and not changed such that the tank parameters were distant from the source parameters. If you want maximum water quality, you can set up automated daily changes. I'm lazy, I go for large volume (~50%) weekly changes.

A varied healty diet and healthy water will maximize colors. But a bit of stage setting with darker substrates and specialized lighting (I prefer Tritons myself - they are not white, and are expensive, but they do show off the fish and plants and tanks well).

 

[gman52]

the lighting u need to bring out the full/best color of ur fish is u need to be using a fulll spectrum bulb and a color enhancing bulb. the enhancing bulb u will need to know which color u want to enhacne. a actinic , will enhance the blue spectrum and for a red enhancement a 50/50 might work. u can find the right bulb according to wat u want on the internet somewhere chart somewhere. but for this lighting u will need to invest, unless u have one already, in a two or three strip flourescent lighting fixture.

i use special color lighting for my saltwater tank. if u look on a saltwater website, u may be able to find some info there.

 

[Raskolnikov]

The best lighting for fish colors, bar-none, is sunlight. I have a tank that recieves about an hour of overhead sunlight in the summer months and no other light that I've seen even compares.

 

[cohazard]

shrimp works well you gotta leave the shell on and i also feed mealworms and crickets after gutloading them with carrots. what color is your background and substrate? that can make a difference too.

Both of the main tanks have brown gravel, not too dark, not too light. I have noticed how the substrates color affects a fish's color. But black tends to make a lot of fish's color get too dark, to the point where some of them are unattractive IMO.

What type of shrimp do you feed? Why do you leave the shell on; what's the benefit from that?

I'm going to try the crickets and mealworms (fed with carrots). Will balas eat that?

More frequent water changes wont promote more color in your fish, perfect water conditions will.

I meant vicariously. More frequent water changes promotes better health, which in turn does promote better color.

The color enhancing flakes I have been using are really bringing out the beautiful blues, greens, oranges, and reds in my fish.

I'm trying not to rely on artificial color enhancers, but if somebody knows of some really effective ones, I'll try them. Are you talking about Tetra's color enhancing flakes? I've tried them in the past, and mainly saw an increase in the 'red' colors of my fish. Even in some fish that really weren't supposed to be red, so I stopped using it.

Water changes are usually dictated by population of tank, amount of live plants and the amount of toxin/ residues building up. The usual indicator for water changes in a non planted tank is nitrates. When they start to raise above 20ppm or so then a water change is indicated. Planted tanks usually can get by with water changes being indicated by lack of fertilizers.

This is true. Although, I don't use ferts in my planted tank since it's a low-light setup.

My general policy is that bigger water changes are better.

Some fish look better w/ more subdued lighting and others with bright lights so you'll just have to look that up

I started the thread to share a discussion about experiences amongst my peers. To see if anyone knows this information. Not to be given a vague response and get turned away, lol. Details wildcat, details.

I found that Tetra Colorbits is a great food to get nice colours. It's a good food imo.

oh also genetics have a big determining factor in what a fish will look like.

You bring up a very good point that I forgot about. Genetics. Especially considering the clowns. According to loachesonline.com, the difference between clowns collected in Borneo and those collected in Sumatra, is noticeable. I have also noticed a lot of diversity amongst the photos of elec. blue demps. In part because of whether or not flash was used, but mainly because of genetics and lighting.

I might give those colorbits a try. Anybody else use them?

Glad you posted this SoCal
Does anyone know what kind of lighting best shows off irridescence

With irridescence, it's mainly the angle of light. The brightness of the reflection obviously depends on the brightness of the lights. For example, German Blue Rams look great in well lit tanks, because all that light reflects highly off of their blue irridescent color.

subdued... I have the same fish... beautiful isnt it! I have noticed that when it is in the shadows and such that he is just that much more beautiful!

When your fish swims into the shadows, it's no longer getting much light from the tank. What happens, is that it begins receiving light from another angle (most likely from outside the tank), which is why the color looks better.

Water change should not be stressful for the fish at all. That situation could only arise if the water had been abused by being ignored and not changed such that the tank parameters were distant from the source parameters. If you want maximum water quality, you can set up automated daily changes. I'm lazy, I go for large volume (~50%) weekly changes.

A varied healty diet and healthy water will maximize colors. But a bit of stage setting with darker substrates and specialized lighting (I prefer Tritons myself - they are not white, and are expensive, but they do show off the fish and plants and tanks well).

I was talking about stress from the lower water levels, the filters turning off, and the sound of the bubbles (I use an air pump when I'm doing a water change, so that the water stays oxygenated while the filters are off).

I use the 'python' knockoff (Lee's ultimate gravel vaccum), to do water changes, so the water comes straight from tap, but everytime I do a water change, I keep an eye on the temp for any major changes, but no drastic changes every happen. Maybe a degree or two. Is that enough to stress my fish? Do you have any suggestions for diet, that I'm not feeding already?

the lighting u need to bring out the full/best color of ur fish is u need to be using a fulll spectrum bulb and a color enhancing bulb. the enhancing bulb u will need to know which color u want to enhacne. a actinic , will enhance the blue spectrum and for a red enhancement a 50/50 might work.

So I should use an actinic strip, and a 50/50? I would think that a 50/50 would enhance blue more, but I could be wrong.

The best lighting for fish colors, bar-none, is sunlight. I have a tank that recieves about an hour of overhead sunlight in the summer months and no other light that I've seen even compares.

I wish I could get overhead sunlight for my tanks. Especially the planted one, but I live in an apartment. :sad:

What do you think of my 'sunbathing' idea? Giving the fish a tan, maybe once a monty. I'm sure it'll work with my blue goldfish, but I don't kow about the others.

I guess I'll be the first to try?

Thanks to everybody who posted, I highly appreciate it. I look forward to keep going with this.

 

[greendeltatke]

I've been summering my white clouds outside for the summer in a container pond. The regular brown ones turned deep chocolate and the golden white clouds turned truly golden with scarlet fin tips and mouths.

 

[cherrypie]

kelvin is a temperature measure buddy, so your clearly wrong there. 7000k is like 6,727 degree farenheit. check your crap b4 posting

I guess with a nick like "TrollWoot" I shouldn't respond, but I figure other people may be interested, so here it goes.

Degrees Kelvin in the case of colour temperature for lighting refers to what temperature a black body electromagnetic radiator (such as a block of carbon) would have to be heated to, to produce light with the same visible colour as the light source in question. Low color temperature implies a warmer (more red/yellow) light while high color temperature implies a colder (more blue) light.

It's important to remember that flourescent lamps are not a black body radiator and therefore the colour temperature is far from an accurate indication of their spectral distribution as it only refers to their visual colour, nothing more. So remember when selecting lighting for your Aquarium to look at spectral distribution charts for the light source in question (not always available at a retailer, but a little research on the net may turn these up), to best select a light that fits your needs.

 

[OnyxFishies]

kelvin is a temperature measure buddy, so your clearly wrong there. 7000k is like 6,727 degree farenheit. check your crap b4 posting

:troll:

Hmm.. Troll is appropriate. Anyway, "toofazt" is correct. Kelvin rating is one way to express the appearance of light from a bulb.

This link explains Kelvin ratings (and a fair amount of other terms) as it relates to aquarium lighting:
http://aquarticles.com/articles/management/Dunaway_Lighting_Terms.html

This link explains what the kelvin rating of light bulbs means in detail, and tons of other info.
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Tech/light-spectrum.html#1

Long story short, the kelvin rating of light bulbs compares the light the bulb produces to the light produced by a carbon instrument that has been heated to a certain degrees Kelvin. So, a bulb with a 6700k rating produces light similar in color to that of the carbon instrument at 6700 Deg. Kelvin.

Isn't google a wonderful thing?

 

[Captain Hook]

I might give those colorbits a try. Anybody else use them?

Can't hurt to try. 125gJoe used to feed his discus colorbits a lot I know that. His fish are stunning. Not sure if he still does or if he's still around on here. I think he often visits the off-topic section.

 

[Raskolnikov]

I use the Tetra colorbits, but they gave me no noticeable change in color intensity in my giant danios or swordtails. (Before the addition of colorbits to their diet they had been eating earthworm flakes, OSI spirulina wafers, Tetramin sinking tabs, shrimp pellets, freeze dried and frozen cyclopeeze, frozen bloodworms and brineshrimp, frozen market shrimp, Emerald Entree, and the occasional live insect larvae.)

I do like the Colorbits b/c they're a high floating granule that my ABF loves.