What foods should i use to increase color in rainbows?

[Radioheadx14]

I have 6 boesmanis and 5 turquoise rainbows. the rainbows i have had for a while have really good coloration, almost as good as my LFS's display tank. anyways, i bought 3 more boesmanis because they were only $2.88(assorted rainbow tank sale.) They look healthy but their color is dull. I don't think that they are females, well at least not all of them, because they still have the male patterns but they are just duller than my others. They are still young and that may play a hand, but what foods bring out colors in tropical fish?

Currently i am feeding them color bits from tetra and frozen mysis shrimp, brine shrimp and blood worms every few days. The LFS said something about how they feed 'zoos' to their rainbows to make them look good, but i didn't know what he was talking about.

 

[LandGhoti]

How long have you had them? It may take them a while to color up completely. My turquoise rainbows were dull when I bought them and they colored up more right after I put them in my tank. After about a week, they were a really nice reflective turquoise. I feed Hikari freeze dried bloodworms in the AM, then Omega tropical flakes in the PM. What kind of lighting do you have?

 

[Radioheadx14]

i have only had the new ones for about a week. They are fairly small, 2-2.5 inches. all my other rainbows are adults or close to full grown. they look really good. I have 3x28 full spectrum t-5 bulbs and 1x28 t-5 actinic bulb. i noticed when i added new lighting + the actinic, their colors seems to almost glow.

 

[LandGhoti]

They might still be a bit stressed and not fully adjusted yet to their other established rainbow tankmates. I'm sure they will color up fully for you eventually. The actinic bulbs make a huge difference. I switched out my 65W (6500K) bulb for a double strip with a full spectrum and actinic and all of my fishes' colors really pop out.

 

[Radioheadx14]

i agree, the actinic was one of the best investments for fish's color

 

[toddnbecka]

The ideal diet for rainbows is frozen foods (bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc.) and spirulina-based flakes. They actually eat some plant material in their natural diet,
The "zoos" are probably zooplankton, usually fed to SW critters.

 

[Radioheadx14]

i figured zoos were plankton... but i thought it was weird to feed freshwater fish saltwater food

 

[plecoperson]

Look at bowheads.org; lotsa tips on bringing out the best color in rainbows, which seems to be an art form!