Aquarium fish color enhancement through the choice of fish food is one of the best and the most natural methods. Different fish food can indeed make a huge difference in fish’s overall health, as well as to improve fish colors. With specific diet, you can bring out the best colors of your aquarium fish. In the following, we will be going through a list of best fish food that can naturally enhance the coloration of aquarium fish.
Part I. Provide your aquarium fish with a high-quality staple food is a good start.
1. Omega One Flakes
– This arguably “the best brand” uses “whole salmon” as the main ingredient.
Most other fish food use “fish meal.” The term “fish meal” usually means the leftover parts of fish after the good parts were removed to other products such as for human consumption. Fish meal is mostly fish skins and fish organs, and it is not as nutritious as “whole salmon” which includes every part of the entire salmon. Salmon is a natural color enhancer, and it is best for bringing out the red in your fish.
2. Omega One Super Color Flakes
– It pretty much has the same ingredient as the regular Omega One flakes, but since Omega One is such a high-quality brand, I would take the manufacturer’s word on the product’s extra ability to enhance fish colors.
3. Omega One Shrimp Pellets is made of whole shrimp, whole salmon, and whole Herring. While it is just as if not more nutritious than the flakes, it is for bottom feeders such as catfish. It is quite big, more than 5mm long. Although my middle-level fish such as Black Phantom Tetra have no way to swallow a large pellet in one bite, they would hold a pellet in the mouth while being chased by other Black Phantom Tetra all over the tank.
4. New Life Spectrum pellets – This brand of fish food uses mostly “whole krill” as their top ingredient. Krill is another excellent natural color enhancer, and it is very nutritious and extremely easy for fish to digest.
Make sure to pick the proper size of pellets for your fish. I have mostly 2~3 inch long fish. 0.5mm pellets are perfect for them. I have tried the 1mm pellets first, and I found them to be a little too big for my fish–they would hold a 1mm pellet in the mouth until it dissolves into smaller sizes before they can swallow it. With 0.5mm pellets, they could
Part II. Best Color enhancer treats
5. Bloodworms – A bloodworm is the larvae stage of midge fly. They are red in color. Bloodworm is high in protein and minerals and is a delicacy for most fish. While the nutritious value of bloodworms might be similar to the ordinary mosquito larvae, the color enhancement feature of the bloodworms is much better. Because it is high in protein, we recommend feeding your fish only once or twice per week as a special treat. They come in freeze-dried and frozen packages. Some brands label mosquito larvae with the name of “bloodworm”. You need to watch out for it if you are after the color enhancement goal.
I use both Hikari Frozen Bloodworm and Hikari Freeze Dried Bloodworms.
6. Brine Shrimp – Brine shrimp is often used in conditioning the fish for breeding, as well as a fish fry food. It is high in amino acid and minerals. It is another excellent color enhancement food for aquarium fish. You can buy the frozen packages, or the freeze dried. I have used Hikari frozen brine shrimp cubes, as well as freeze-dried bottled brine shrimp from both Omega One and Hikari brands.
Another better alternative is to buy a brine shrimp hatch kit with brine shrimp eggs.
Brine shrimps are the most nutritious when they just hatched. Both your adult small sized fish and your fries will love them.I used this kit to hatch brine shrimp eggs, and it is easy to set up. Besides full instructions, it also comes with 3 sample packs of brine shrimp eggs.
7. Spirulina – It is a green-blue algae and a natural color enhancer for fish. Its nutritious value is also great as a veggie diet. Many different types of fish flakes and pellets have some spirulina in them, but if you want it in larger quality, you should go for the Zoo Med Spirulina 20 Flake Fish Food.
Hikari also makes a freeze-dried spirulina brine shrimp which contain both spirulina and brine shrimp in one food. I have used this food, and its smell is so appealing that I could hardly resist taking a bite myself!
8. Daphnia – It is also called water flea. Small sized fish love it and it enhances fish’s color. I use Hikari Freeze Dried Daphnia, and my fish love them. Frozen Daphnia should work well too.
9. Krill – You can feed whole krill as a color enhancer. Either freeze-dried krill or frozen Krill will do just fine. As mentioned earlier, krill is extremely easy to digest for fish since it is a natural food for many fish species in the wild. You may crush the freeze-dried whole krill into smaller pieces if your fish are too small to swallow it whole. Frozen krill are in smaller pieces, and even my 2~3 inches small fish can eat them in one bite.
Part III. Color Enhance Supplement
10. Vitamins supplement
While most of the high-quality brand fish food already has enhanced vitamins, I use another product called VitaChem to make sure my fish get enough of it.
Boyd Enterprises Vita-Chem is a complete vitamin supplement with vitamin C and all necessary amino acids and lipids common to overall fish health and regeneration. I regularly soak some of the fish food such as freeze-dried bloodworms, krill, and brine shrimp in vitachem, and even sinking pellets in VitaChem, before I feed them to my fish. Many users have reported better fish colors with this product alone. It does not hurt to give it a try, not to mention the health benefits it can bring to your fish.
Keep feeding your fish with a variety of high-quality natural color enhancing fish food. You will see improved fish colors in 1~2 months if you had been feeding them with low-quality food.
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