nutritional needs for color maintenance in chrysopterus

[Ron Popeil]

specifically with chrysopterus clowns, does anyone else notice a fading of that bright orange of their fins and body? from the pairs ive had and seen, over time the orange seems to turn into a yellow after several months and isnt nearly as intense as they were upon arrival.

ive tried feeding the widest variety of foods possible, except for live.

heres what i feed:
frozen mysis
formula one pellet
formula two flake
formula two pellet
prime reef flake
frozen cyclopeeze
marinegro
bio blend
tubifex worms

plus silversides and krill when they get the pieces after feeding my anemones.

these are foods i feed throughout the day, with a heavier emphasis on the formula two flakes, mysis, forumla one pellet and prime reef.

is there anything else im missing in this diet? any ideas?

 

[nathan_unsane]

what kind of lighting are you using?

 

[Ron Popeil]

when the pair i have that is in my refugium is under a 4 x 96w powercompact system. in less than a week, they will be under a 400w metal halide.

but even in a QT tank under with either indirect incandescent lighting or PC lighting from a neighboring tank, they seemed to have much more orange in the beginning. i hope when they are moved to their new tank there is an improvement, but im thinking nutrition could be used to enhance their colors...

 

[colby]

hmmm...I would recommend feeding them diced up shrimp, fish roe (if u can find some and must be frozen for a few weeks before use...) and squid. I think ultimately it may have alot to do with the lack of natural sunlight, but that is just experience. Good luck.
Colby

 

[MarinaP]

I would not recommend raw shrimp.

 

[colby]

sorry....my bad i did not specify...cooked pieces...may not be super nutritional but I have found it helps with color...

 

[Elmo18]

Hi Jordan.

I would agree with Marina here. I've had a fish die just from feeding raw shrimp. I have no clue why, either, but that was the only fish I fed raw shrimp.

I do have a single chrysopterus. I am really getting that orange/yellow color change, but instead am seeing the entire fish turn rather dark, with black rays on the tail.

I thought this was sort of interesting.

Best,
Ilham

 

[MarinaP]

There are color morphs of chrys. Regardless of what you feed them. Just avoid raw shrimp

 

[Amphiprion]

It all depends upon where the raw shrimp comes from

 

[Amphiprion]

A. chrysopterus has a relatively high percentage of algae in its diet (roughly a third). If anything, I would increase the amount of vegetable matter in their diet. Zooplankton type foods are great, as well, representing the majority of the diet, but still not much more than algae, either. To a lesser extent, these fish consume 'pods, etc. from benthic areas.

 

[MarinaP]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7394131#post7394131 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Amphiprion
It all depends upon where the raw shrimp comes from

Explain?

 

[Amphiprion]

Well, here in the good state of Alabama, we have very elevated levels of Hg in our seafood--I have had bad experiences feeding our shrimp to fish and invertebrates. However, somewhat less local shrimp (Louisana, Mississippi areas) seem to have little effect. The foreign species and hormone treated ones I tend to stay away from. Things may have changed, since I don't even have anything to feed it to anymore, besides myself, of course. Then again, who knows what my blood-mercury percentages are, too .

 

[Ron Popeil]

well then, an uppage in algal foods will be attempted.

any suggestions on the most potent of these?

 

[dantodd]

Check out Eric Borneman's coral food, if it's chopped up coarser it makes great fish food AND it has a lot of color enhancers in it