Fish Foods You Use, Tell Us About Them.

[DMD123]

Yeah, tons of flowerhorn foods with this high concentration of color enhancers and hump builders. I wanted to add a little color boost to see if the red spot sevs would get a bit more red. Was also considering the NLS red but it is quite a bit more money than this stuff was.

 

[DMD123]

I got in a bag of the Hikari blood parrot pellets today. I know this is supposed to be a color enhancement food too. Just seeing if it were palatable to the fish, I put a little in and the gourami went at them without an issue. He is actually a bit picky of an eater. He is one of the only fish I have seen that doesn’t like spirulina mysis shrimp, which I have used on many new fish to get them eating.

 

[DMD123]

I overfed the Hikari a little and was worried it would float forever and not get ate... Apparently something ate it. (or it all got suck up in a filter, lol) I know Hikari gets knocked as a less than stellar food with foods like NLS and Northfin getting all the praise, but it really is interesting how high an acceptance factor the Hikari foods have compared to some other brands.

 

[lloyd378]

I overfed the Hikari a little and was worried it would float forever and not get ate... Apparently something ate it. (or it all got suck up in a filter, lol) I know Hikari gets knocked as a less than stellar food with foods like NLS and Northfin getting all the praise, but it really is interesting how high an acceptance factor the Hikari foods have compared to some other brands.

I think, like most people, junk food is chosen more often or quicker than healthy foods….. of course most people only chose it as a treat, which is the same for a lot of fish keepers. I have heard good things about the hikari that has the added probiotics, but, I haven’t tried them

 

[DMD123]

The Hikari Bio-Gold with the probiotics is said to reduce waste. I had not used it in a long time but it didnt seem to make much difference from what I remember.

I decided on the heavy duty color enhancers with the Hikari parrot (float) and DynariX Super red (sink) to see if my red spot severum would color up even better and also if I would see a difference in the red tail gourami. If the DynariX sinking works, well I really cant do much with it for larger fish since its only in a 2mm. I could possibly switch to the NLS red sinking formula which goes to a 3mm but with NLS that is not that big. As for the Hikari parrot, it does go to a medium floating which may or may not work on large fish. Well when I say large, Im talking about the GIANT gourami at 18-20" which it has the potential to reach.

 

[lloyd378]

The Hikari Bio-Gold with the probiotics is said to reduce waste. I had not used it in a long time but it didnt seem to make much difference from what I remember.

I decided on the heavy duty color enhancers with the Hikari parrot (float) and DynariX Super red (sink) to see if my red spot severum would color up even better and also if I would see a difference in the red tail gourami. If the DynariX sinking works, well I really cant do much with it for larger fish since its only in a 2mm. I could possibly switch to the NLS red sinking formula which goes to a 3mm but with NLS that is not that big. As for the Hikari parrot, it does go to a medium floating which may or may not work on large fish. Well when I say large, Im talking about the GIANT gourami at 18-20" which it has the potential to reach.

I would assume at 18” you’d need a 5mm sized pellet like a southern delight large cichlid. Then you could treat them with blood worms or krill as a treat to bring out some color.

 

[DMD123]

Just an interesting observation in the color enhancement pellets so far. I was looking at pics of when I introduced my giant gourami to the 90 gallon with the red severum two months ago and then to a recent picture and I do see a difference. The reds in the severum are enhanced for sure now. I have been using the Hikari Blood parrot floating and the Hikari Vibra bite XL sinking along with the DynariX for a bit there too (just ended up being too small a pellet for long term).

 

[lloyd378]

Just an interesting observation in the color enhancement pellets so far. I was looking at pics of when I introduced my giant gourami to the 90 gallon with the red severum two months ago and then to a recent picture and I do see a difference. The reds in the severum are enhanced for sure now. I have been using the Hikari Blood parrot floating and the Hikari Vibra bite XL sinking along with the DynariX for a bit there too (just ended up being too small a pellet for long

Do you think the pellets or just normal colors coming in as the fish mature to be the cause of th color in the giant gourami?

I could definitely tell a difference in color between your largest severum and the two smaller ones….

 

[BPSabelhaus]

Probably a bit of both. Good diets help growth rate as well as colors, especially carotenes. Oranges / reds depend on it to produce vibrant shades to attract mates. Bright Orange / reds is indicative of healthy individuals that are getting those fruits etc... loaded with it.
Anecdotal maybe, but the normally black and orange goldfish in the pond is now orange and black since switching to a much heavier diet of duckweed this season. Duckweed is a rich source of beta carotenes.

 

[DMD123]

Do you think the pellets or just normal colors coming in as the fish mature to be the cause of th color in the giant gourami?

I could definitely tell a difference in color between your largest severum and the two smaller ones….

With the gourami I think it is just starting to develop the coloration but the sev for sure in the 90g that has been eating the color enhancement pellets is showing it. The other two sevs have just been started on the Vibra Bites XL which is supposed to enhance color but not on the scale as the Blood parrot formula.

 

[DMD123]

Had been wanting to update on the Hikari minivore to compare it to the other pellets in the series


Pellet size comparisons

Ive been using the minivore to boost size on my clown loaches, the sinking carnivore on my medium sized red wolf fish and the massivore on a former full grown red wolf fish (12"0.