Color Enhancer for Discus.. ethical ?

[tomahawk]

Do you think feeding Discus with artifical color enhancers are good ? I know a lot of people do that, but do you suggest or do it to your fish ? Things like Synthetic Astaxanthin, Naturose, Chlorophyll Red, CR6, Testosterone etc, how safe are they for the fishes ? Rather we not feed them well with natural food, do lots of water change and bring out their actual natural color ? What u say folks?

[ILLUSN]

depending on the enhancer, i have no problem with color bits, anthaxin (naturose), spirolina, or carrot/redfish.

hormones i have ethical issues about, not for the color enhancing effects but for the loss of fertility and reduced lifespan of the fish.

[Hollowman]

I would find it hard not to feed a food that won't affect the colour. Even natural foods will do something. :)

H

[tomahawk]

Hollow, am speaking specifically about artificial color enhancers here, including CR6 and Testosterone..

[Hollowman]

Ok then, I am against these types of enhancers.

[cityguy]

Me too, I am against going against nature :-)

[rwel4809]

Me too, I am against going against nature :-)

I guess all fish keeping is going against nature in a way - setting up an artificial system that requires us to maintain the balance rather than letting 'nature' deal on its own...

I am against hormones etc if they harm the fish, reduce their life or quality of life. But any food that affects their colour and does no harm seems ok to me...

Robert

[tomahawk]

A fish stays in water in nature, in water in our tanks, feeds on various natural feed in nature, same with us, but in nature it is not fed with hormones and color enhancing special feed, which we do.. thats going against natures way, fish keeping is not going against nature !!!!!

[rwel4809]

fish keeping is not going against nature !!!!!

An artificial system does 'go against nature' in my view. It is unlikely that the aquarium could function for more than a month or two without human intervention.

But I don't think that it is necessarily a bad thing to go against nature. Modern medicine, for example, is a form of un-natural intervention and it saves many human and animal lives.

As long as your fish are happy I don't think you need to be concerned that you are doing anything bad by creating an artificial environment. The science of fish keeping is about aftificially creating the correct chemical balance, which involves monitoring and adjusting the chemisty by waterchanges etc is the key to success in our hobby.

JMO... :D

Robert

[mistakes r crucial]

Using colour enhancing food, depending on the enhancer, is most certainly not against nature. NatuRose, and a few other products these days, only use the natural form of Astaxanthin, Haematococcus Pluvialis which is the very thing that puts Pink in Flamingo. It's the very same thing that makes that Salmon on your plate look a lovely red colour and not grey. It's found in nature everywhere.

Have you ever seen a bird bath that has dried up and sometimes you see the algae on the bottom is green and a bit further up it's red. The red is Astaxanthin protecting the remaining algae cells from stress. They can lay dormant for 40 years in this state and when circumstances allow they return to their former glory.

After being involved with Astaxanthin over the last few years I would be inclined to place colour at the bottom of my list of benefits. It's the very thing that gives Salmon the energy to swim against the flow for hundreds of miles to spawn. The overall health benefits of it are quite amazing and not only for fish, mammals including humans are proving to benefit from it too. Do a Google if you're interested and take a look at the scientific studies and research, amazing stuff!
MAC