Fish Coloration

[Arshis]

Just pondering where "better" colored fish come from.
Typical Green Terrors from lfs
http://www.americancichlids.com/fishpics/greenterror1.jpg

Here is a online dealers Green terror
http://www.aquascapeonline.com/store/scripts/prodList.asp?idCategory=274

Or is it like all fish have a potiential for better colors?

 

[Zagz]

I believe it is partly due to the suppliers that the lfs get their fish from. Some lfs get more quality fish raised by smaller distributors. I also believe that all fish have the potential with proper diet and water conditions to be more colorful. A combination of these two factors IMO.

 

[Arshis]

I have the typical green terror up top and i'd love for her to show her colors.
How would one go about makeign a more premium diet for their fish for maxium color enhancement.

 

[Zagz]

New Life Spectrum foods have been the change for me. I also feed veggies like cuke's and zuc to the fish, frozen bloodworms as a treat. There are a lot of options out there. I swear sometimes those fish eat better than I take time to.

 

[Toirtis]

Mature, wild-caught fish often have incredible colouration from ideal water conditions and a very varied and high-end diet...plus most are nowhere near as inbred as typical pet shop stock. Get a WC or F1 juvenile and feed it on nothing but premium frozen, fresh, and prepared foods (like NLS), give it lots of room and twice weekly PWCs, and you can have fish like that, too.

 

[DeFeKt]

WoW, My male is indenticle to that online dealers

Time and maintenance pays a huge roll as toirtis mentioned, and the wild species are pretty much brighter and better coloured as they rely on the colouring for food/breeding etc.

you'd also be very suprised at how much difference a top quality camera makes to pics of fish and their colouring. You also might find that these aren't always the actual fish they have, more often then not they are taken from species profiles etc for a better looking standard.

Unfortunatly it's just the way things go.
Matt