Increasing Fish Color?

[mitchfish]

Im about to add driftwood and real plants to my 26 gallon aquarium. My fishes colors are ok, but not as good as I have seen in a lot of other pictures and videos on the internet. My params have been great for a while now, and the fish colors are still so-so. I feed quality food (new life spectrum), and my light is also decent. I am starting to think that the real aquarium plants will bring out their full colors because they will make them feel truly comfortable. Could i help their color in any other way?

The fish are 8 bloodfin tetras, 6 gold pristella tetras, and a dwarf gourami.

 

[George9]

Try feeding a varied diet instead of nls every day. You could also feed live or frozen brine shrimp or blood worms. That might brighten them up

 

[Readingexcalibur]

Im about to add driftwood and real plants to my 26 gallon aquarium. My fishes colors are ok, but not as good as I have seen in a lot of other pictures and videos on the internet. My params have been great for a while now, and the fish colors are still so-so. I feed quality food (new life spectrum), and my light is also decent. I am starting to think that the real aquarium plants will bring out their full colors because they will make them feel truly comfortable. Could i help their color in any other way?

The fish are 8 bloodfin tetras, 6 gold pristella tetras, and a dwarf gourami.

I use hikarii spurlina and brine shrimp frozen cubes. Month supply is only 4$ and the spurlina is what your looking for. BTW, I'm spelling that off the top of my head, could be misspelled.

 

[mitchfish]

I actually do feed frozen bloodworms. Sorry i didnt mention it.

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I actually do feed frozen bloodworms. Sorry i didnt mention it.

They are a good treat, check out the spurlina and shrimp, I think it will be what your looking for! Really brightened up my rams!

 

[mitchfish]

I might do new food, but I guess my real question is: Will converting to a planted tank increase color? Because i know comfort/stress level impacts color too.... And since the going from fake to real plants makes it more like their natural habit I am thinking that their color will boost. Am I completely wrong?? LOL

 

[Readingexcalibur]

I might do new food, but I guess my real question is: Will converting to a planted tank increase color? Because i know comfort/stress level impacts color too.... And since the going from fake to real plants makes it more like their natural habit I am thinking that their color will boost. Am I completely wrong?? LOL

I think it would, all of my tanks are planted, you can see in my pics. It will help the water quality as well which is better for your fish and increases their quality of life!

 

[HUKIT]

The 3 most important factors in fish color is:

1. Genetics, low quality fish will always be ugly.
2. Water quality, lots of water changes.
3. Diet, you have this covered already.

 

[Readingexcalibur]

The 3 most important factors in fish color is:

1. Genetics, low quality fish will always be ugly.
2. Water quality, lots of water changes.
3. Diet, you have this covered already.

So plants would help with #2!!!

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

The 3 most important factors in fish color is:

1. Genetics, low quality fish will always be ugly.
2. Water quality, lots of water changes.
3. Diet, you have this covered already.

Those are 3 good points! I would like to add a few.

4. Stress. It is kinda vague, but if a fish is stressed it will have hardly any color. When it is happy it will look neon

5. Temperature. Find the perfect temp for your fish and he will be much more active and his colors will POP

 

[mitchfish]

Ok

1. My fish store is not a chain store and it has a good reputation so the fish should be pretty good to begin with
2. Like I said my params are great and have been ever since I got this tank. And plants should do nothing but help as readingexcalibur said
3. Ya i think my diet is good
4. This is where the real plants will really make a difference IMO i think they will love the tank when it is densely planted the stress will be at a bear minimum.
5. My temp is at about 77-78 so from what ive seen that is fine

Cant wait to get the plants!!!! Scored an awesome piece of dw a couple weeks ago!!!

 

[Super_Blueberry]

Dark backgrounds and dark substrate help as well. The brighter the environment, the lighter the fish color to help blend. Darken it up and they try to darken their colors to match.

 

[librarygirl]

Dark backgrounds and dark substrate help as well. The brighter the environment, the lighter the fish color to help blend. Darken it up and they try to darken their colors to match.

+1 I was going to mention this as well. I noticed my fish's colors were much more vibrant when I had black sand. Now that I have a lighter tan they look more washed out than before. A black background and plants haven't helped, so I might go back to the darker substrate when I upgrade. Just something to consider.

 

[mitchfish]

Okay I will get a black background I was thinking about that anyway.

 

[Loudog21]

Ok

1. My fish store is not a chain store and it has a good reputation so the fish should be pretty good to begin with
2. Like I said my params are great and have been ever since I got this tank. And plants should do nothing but help as readingexcalibur said
3. Ya i think my diet is good
4. This is where the real plants will really make a difference IMO i think they will love the tank when it is densely planted the stress will be at a bear minimum.
5. My temp is at about 77-78 so from what ive seen that is fine

Cant wait to get the plants!!!! Scored an awesome piece of dw a couple weeks ago!!!

Where can I get driftwood? It just seems so expensive at the stores.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

I find all my pieces on the shores of lake superior.

 

[jetajockey]

Ok

1. My fish store is not a chain store and it has a good reputation so the fish should be pretty good to begin with
2. Like I said my params are great and have been ever since I got this tank. And plants should do nothing but help as readingexcalibur said
3. Ya i think my diet is good
4. This is where the real plants will really make a difference IMO i think they will love the tank when it is densely planted the stress will be at a bear minimum.
5. My temp is at about 77-78 so from what ive seen that is fine

Cant wait to get the plants!!!! Scored an awesome piece of dw a couple weeks ago!!!

Whether the fish store has a good reputation or not doesn't really affect the coloration of the fish. Most LFS get their fish from farms, and sometimes they get less than optimal colored fish in. When I'm LFS shopping I usually only pick fish that look good in the store.


I agree that the current diet is fine, NLS is plenty to achieve great coloration.

It sounds like you have a good starting point with the darker substrate and planting the tank, I don't think driftwood will do much of anything but it does look good.

I might have missed it, but what kind of fish are we talking about?

 

[Coursair]

I was gonna mention dark substrate and dark background as well

I do like a varied diet and also sometimes making sure you have enough of each type of schooling fish to make them feel safe.

Plants definitely can help fish feel secure. A few floating plants like Amazon Frogbit can help very shy fish also. I have Celestial Pearl Danios that are known to be shy, I wouldn't see mine if they weren't happy and I see at least some of mine all the time. Colors??? For sure !!

 

[mitchfish]

Also, what is your guys favorite floating plant to dim my light a little bit

 

[Coursair]

Amazon Frogbit or Red Root Floater (RRF are harder to grow in some tanks ).