Hi guys,
I currently have 30pc danio galaxies but their fins are not brightly colored. Was it due to the food that I am providing? So far, I uses only Hikari first bites for them. If I am to introduce live food, how do we keep them fresh and alive that I can keep them for days as I cannot find a lfs that sell a very small quantity for my danios...
I am wondering how do you feed your fauna to get the its brilliant color? Any advice?
Cheeers!
Could be your danios are still relatively young, matured fish would developed more intense coloration. Give them some time to grow. For live food, if you are referring to tubifex worms, you can try to keep them in the refrigerator, the low temp would keep them alive for a couple of days.
Agree with Guppendler about the colors being less intense if you happen to get them as juvenile fishes (ie 1.0-1.5cm length), in addition they usually need abit of time to adapt to a new tank environment and color up. Can try feeding them color enhancing pellet food like NLS Small Fish Formula. I fed my fishes Hikari Micro Pellets and Micro Wafers and they maintained their color well.
Though from my experience keeping a group of mainly male Danio Margaritatus, even when displayed in the LFS retail tanks or bags where all the fishes are usually stressed and pale in color, the males will still have very noticeable bright red fins (even though their stressed body color may be pale). If the fishes don't already have bright red fins when you first get them, then high chance they are the females (which have naturally less brightly colored fins).
I remember visiting various LFS over a period of many weeks to handpick only the males from their retail tanks, quite often i can only find 3-4 confirmed males with bright red fins amongst an entire tank of 50-60 fishes (which i presume the rest are the females). I guess most of the time the colorful male fishes get snapped up very quickly by buyers and end up only left the less colorful females.
Hmm.. The danio was the first batch in since tank was cycled. I have various size thus I don't think it the age issue. The reason I am asking was I saw very bright red fin in Aquatic Ave two days back and was surprised. I got 5 from them and brought back, indeed there is a great different with mine. I have a chat with the shop keeper and was told that the food play a big part on the fish color, especially with live food the fish color would be enchanted deeply. Therefore I would it would be good to ask and gather some info here.
Or maybe the fish quality issue?
Yeah, the quality of food does help enhance their color, but the males fins will still tend to be alot more intensely colored than the females... so if you got mostly female fishes, no matter how well they are fed, they still wouldn't get the same intense red color fins.
I had a few female fishes in the group i kept (they were from my initial purchase, before i started to handpick only males), although those females ate the same food as the male fishes, their fins never became bright red (only some tints of red), but they grew noticeably fatter with nice honey golden colored bellies.
Here is a good comparison of both the males and females when colored up:
Source: http://www.fish-as-pets.com/2007/06/...arl-danio.html
Not sure if fish quality from different batches affects their color though, but i have seen a fin color variation before at some LFS whereby the male fishes had bright orange fins (instead of red), so those could be a different color form in the species, or probably collected at different colonies around their habitat.
How do you guys normally feed and keep the live food for our little beauties?
In a feeding tray? And keep the balance with an air pump with daily water change?
What would you guys be feeding on?
Commercially prepared flakes/pellets are pretty balanced. Fish derive their energies mainly from fats and proteins but not so much from carbohydrates. Flakes/pellets are also fortified with vitamins. Once or twice a week i would treat my fish live tubifex worms or frozen blood worms. The key thing is to keep your fish healthy and happy, once they are at such state, their natural color would show. And clean water plays a big part in making the fish healthy and happy too.
For color enhancing fish food, they commonly contain beta carotene (Vit A) and sex hormones. Beta carotene in high concentration could be toxic to the fish. And hormones are definitely bad for fish health. Very often when hormones are added, they will not be shown in the ingredient content. Hence as such, I would invariably avoid fish food that makes color enhancing claims.
Thanks Guppendler for your input. Yes, I think that a balance diet is important for good growth and to bring out the natural color, and it is what I am trying to achieve.
I have brought a new pack Hikari micro pellet and frozen brine shrimp, hopefully I can achieve a better diet and see some change soon.
Btw, would danio galaxy have a problem with blood worm?
Am not aware of any problem with frozen blood worms fed to danios.
Just wondering how are your celestial pearl danios doing now. Are there any improvement in their color? By now the danios should be pretty settled in their new home and should be feeding fine. Any nice updates?
I hear tried feeding them live food such as adult brine shrimp, baby brine shrimp as well as micro pellets. As far as food concerns, these little one are not fussy at all. As for their color enhancement, no different at all. Those that I got from AA remains much deeper color than those I got from Pasir Ris farm previously. I guess it might something related with it batch and grade (maybe) that I have gotten previously.Originally Posted by Guppendler
Well, at least all your danios are healthy and fine. Part of the good of fish keeping is that it helps to inculcate patient. Continue to keep your danios well and happy, you never know one day the danios might just colored up.
Possible to post some pics of your CPD? It might shed some light perhaps. Thanks
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