Colour Enhanced Discus

[ivo]

I am wondering if a discus is fed with colour enhanced products how long would it take for the fish to lose artifical colour once it is stopped fedding those products? and is there any side effect or potential health problem will cause to the fish? Thanks.

[Merrilyn]

Ivo, it depends on what has been used to colour feed them.

There are some very safe, natural foods that will enhance the colour of red discus. One that comes to mind is Naturose. It's a natural food, and very safe. Once you stop feeding your fish that food, the effects will wear off after a couple of months.

However some of our imported red fish have been hormoned. That's not safe, and often renders the fish sterile, or even dooms them to an early death.

[G-1000]

Depending on how the colour was enhanced:

Hormones i.e testosterone can take up to a month to fully reverse (depending on dose)

Food enhancing - considerable shorter, usually a max of one week.

G

[ivo]

Thank you. I bought two discus a few months back one is violet reflection and the other one is leop. spots snakeskin. They looked fantastic colour when i first got them but now the colour is dull, no shineness and a lot lighter colour. the violet reflection now looks like red turq. but without the red (or very light brown colour). If i feed them with those natural colour enhanced food lady red suggest would their colour be improved?

[samir]

my fish took about a couple of months, they do look more natural now and i've gotten used to them being that way. one by-product of not colour feeding is that when you walk into a lfs all their fish look like they have neon bulbs attached to them. its quite a shocking difference :shock:

[Merrilyn]

Ivo, there is a newly released food called Breeders Blend that has a very safe colour additive.

It's made by one of the sponsors of this forum, and a guy who really knows his discus.

It's available in flake and pellet form. All my fish just loved the flake, so give it a try.

[ivo]

Thank you ladyred will definitely give breeders blend a try.