Dull colour on emperor

[Oakie]

Have had this guy for about a year and a half. Great looking fish but always looks pale. I see emperors in fish stores and their blues are quite vibrant. My guy seems to have a washed out look.

Feed him a combination of flakes, pellets, mysis and manages to get the odd silverside when I'm feeding my anemones.

any suggestions?

 

[paveking1]

I have one about 8" long , The key to keeping their color is keeping nitrates low& feeding them sponges at least 3 times a week .

 

[limitedslip]

Sponge, pick up some angel mix for it, angels need sponge.

 

[Oakie]

forgot to mention I also feed Hikari Marine Angel - is that what you're referring to. Now I only feed that from time to time.

 

[FishyMel]

I fed marine angel food for about 2 weeks and then stopped, and he is still drop dead gorgeous. I've had him a 1 and 1/2 when I got him he was 4 inches now he is 8. I also believe him to be australian because of his orange tail.

I think my key to success is feeding macroalgae once or twice a week from the refugium.

 

[pinkie]

If you got him as a juv. then his colors will typically be more faded than when they are caught as adults. That is the major trade off with the emperor angelfish. If you get them young, they are typically pretty healthy and hardy, and eat well, but their colors aren't very vibrant as adults. If you get one as an adult, there is typically a lot of difficulty with getting them to eat and they generally don't adapt as well to captive life, but they do have the vibrant coloration.

 

[WuHT]

Try Nori too!

 

[bryan007]

You definitely need to feed sponge it is a major part of their diet. Ocean Nutrition IMO is the best food available for the large Angels its called Angel Formula. I also keep live ball sponges, much easier than the tree forms in orange and yellow which mine nibbles on daily. They also need sponge for long term health and as previously mentioned check the metabolites make sure they are low.

Scott

 

[reeferaddiction]

this is common with emporers in captivity that have been raised from juvies and is diet related, the closer to a natural diet you can give the better and you could also soak the food in vitamin suplements.

 

[Justin/TiV]

Mine is still just beginning to change...but I was told if I supplemented with things like ZOE, and Silcon that it would have more vibrant colors when it changed.

 

[mattsilvester]

I have seen plenty of pics of home grown emporer's that are every bit as vibrant as a wild caught adult...... the thing is, if you have a plain old indonesian emporer and you are comapring it to a red sea / christmas island / marshal island emporer, then you are doing it an injustice, because emporer's from certain locations have more intense colours.

Really, the key is good water quality and good diet..... generally plenty of TLC. There is nothing difficult or mysterious about this, it just takes a little bit of effort to search out the right foods, buy them, and then feed them regularly and in suffiecient quantity.

The good news is that dull colours can be reversed once conditions and diet improve.

HTH

 

[Otogi]

As well as using angel food with sponges in it, would it be beneficial to present the angels with a live red ball sponge or red tree sponge every so often? I was wondering about this as it would add a splash of color to my FOWLR every now and then, when I do place one in the tank. And also provide a constant food source for the angels to nibble on as they please. Similar to leaving a piece of Nori on a clip in the tank, but instead down on the SB. I was thinking of doing this for my Majestic (when I get it), I would have a piece of Nori on a clip and maybe 2 red ball sponges in the tank as well, to go along with a regular feeding shcedual. Of course I would only do this once every other month or so due to the cost of the sponges.

 

[bohannbj]

it could just be genetics some aren't so colorful

 

[mattsilvester]

bohannbj has a point also - which is somewhat similar to the geographic origin idea........

THe one thing that should be said is that there is a difference, in my opinion, in "colour" and "intensity of colour"..... that is difficult to explain in words though! I suppose "depth" would be a better word than intensity...... when you look at the fish, the colour (whatever that may be) should appear to run all the way through his skin - from the outer most surface right through..... it shouldn't appear as though its starting to fade on the surface although a more true colour lies beneath.... like he needs to be cleaned..... is that making any sense?

If you put a red sea emporer and an indonesian emporer side by side, the red sea guy would have a blue more like a hippo tang, while the indonesian would have a blue more like a powder blue...... so the red sea guy would "appear" to have more intense colours...... now if you put the red sea guy under tress, he would go pale...... but his colour would still be a more intense blue than the indonesian guy..... but it would appear washes out and lacking in "depth"......

Does that make sense?

 

[jda]

My last 2 chanovers have had great coloration - even for a regular indo. Zoe, selcon soaked spectrum pellets have been really nice for me as a staple. HTH spirulina pellets, mysis and lots of nori are also fed. The biggest issue with this diet is that they grow too fast so I have to give them away and start again with smaller ones.

I have never fed any sponge.