# Enhancing Colors



## 0S1R1S

I found this video on YouTube. I tried to cross reference the user name and there is no such user here named 'kazun' on P-Fury.

Either way, this is most colorful Cariba I've ever seen. I read the comments on the video, and the OP says he feeds carrots once in awhile.

Apparently the carotenes helps improve orange and red colors. Has anyone else ever done this, or can vouch for the OP? Looks worth it though.






And not to jump ship here, but this user also has videos of a Diamond Rhom in with Cariba, and he labels it as a Spilopleura Diamond.


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## Smoke

I have read that it should work... I haven't personally tried though.


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## Piranha-Freak101

Iv always considered feeding my p's fruits


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## Piranha_man

Dude, that is by FAR the most colorful cariba I've ever seen!
Not only is the belly the fireist orange/red ever, the humeral spots on all his fish are dynamic!









Definitely gonna look into carrots (organic) and possibly even work with some liquid beta-carotenes and soaking some tilapia in it or something.


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## balluupnetme

would stuffing carrots in shrimp and fish fillet have the same effect on their color ?

Edit: I stuffed a little piece of carrot in a piece of fish filet and my little rhom ate it


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer

There was a DIY Piranha Food Pictorial on here that suggested adding carrots to the mixture because beta carotene or something makes the colors go POP.


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## BRUNER247

Carotene/carotenoid enhances red, orange, & lil yellow. Xanthophylls enhances yellow. Phycocyanin enhances blue. Melanin enhances black & brown.


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## jp80911

what food contains Xanthophylls, Phycocyanin ?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

jp80911 said:


> what food contains Xanthophylls, Phycocyanin ?


Astaxanthin is a xanthophyll and is found in shrimp, salmon, and krill.


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## jp80911

so shrimp and krill can enhance both red/orange and yellow?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Yup


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## BRUNER247

Says spirulina is used in chickens to produce a bright yellow skin & egg yokes, even though its a blue/green algy


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## Briaan

Anyone else notice those cariba are cohabing with the Rhom fine? I didn't notice any major fin damage


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## CLUSTER ONE

Im going to try to stuff some carrot puree into a silver side and see if it changes their colours. I wouldn't think carrots would foul the water too much like meat would.


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## Sylar_92

Briaan said:


> Anyone else notice those cariba are cohabing with the Rhom fine? I didn't notice any major fin damage


I believe The rhom could have been in that tank with the caribe for a long periode of time just from looking at the way it behaves around those caribe. Also There are no signs of fin damage but there has been in the past as you can see that the tail of the rhom is sorta small, looking as if it was healing still. Im also pretty sure the cohab is working because the tank could possibly be large and the ratio of the two species together.


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## Piranha_man

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Im going to try to stuff some carrot puree into a silver side and see if it changes their colours. I wouldn't think carrots would foul the water too much like meat would.


Right on...

I'm considering extracting the goo from carotenoid gelcaps with a hypodermic needle and injecting pieces of meat with it.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Piranha_man said:


> Im going to try to stuff some carrot puree into a silver side and see if it changes their colours. I wouldn't think carrots would foul the water too much like meat would.


Right on...

I'm considering extracting the goo from carotenoid gelcaps with a hypodermic needle and injecting pieces of meat with it.








[/quote]
Can you get needeles at any drug store? Its easy to stuff large silversides with things but small ones are alot harder so I was thinking mayby creating a mush then injecting it into the stomach of the smaller silversides or even shrimp or something. Im going to see If I can get my elong to take just thin carrot strips as it will take food from my hand


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## THE BLACK PIRANHA

I think I may try the carrots with my young terns and maybe even seperate 1 of them so I can see the difference. Feed the shoal carrots and keep the solo on his regular diet.


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## Sylar_92

Tried feeding my baby reds some finely diced and shreaded carrots, they loved it. Saw a dramatic change in the red colouration on their anal fins aswell as on their pectoral fins in the next few days. lol tried doing the same with my black rhom, he put it in his mouth for 5 secs sampling it and then spat it out. Guess he's strictly a pellet and meat fish then.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Sylar_92 said:


> Tried feeding my baby reds some finely diced and shreaded carrots, they loved it. Saw a dramatic change in the red colouration on their anal fins aswell as on their pectoral fins in the next few days. lol tried doing the same with my black rhom, he put it in his mouth for 5 secs sampling it and then spat it out. Guess he's strictly a pellet and meat fish then.


 My elong did the same thing as your rhom. He took a piece of shreeded carrot from my hand chewed once then spit it out. I may just try stuffing pellets into his food as stuffing carrots is pretty hard for smalelr foods. I'll first see if I can inject the carrots with a needle but if not I will try to stuff pellets and use vitachem on his food. For my reds stuffing carrots is pretty easy with silver sides as they are about 5" and the head is already removed so I could stuff pretty much a baby carrot worth of grated cattot into them. Im probably going to look for other vegetables and then try to make some salad mush to stuff in there. They already have pretty good colour but more colour would be nice.


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## Sylar_92

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Tried feeding my baby reds some finely diced and shreaded carrots, they loved it. Saw a dramatic change in the red colouration on their anal fins aswell as on their pectoral fins in the next few days. lol tried doing the same with my black rhom, he put it in his mouth for 5 secs sampling it and then spat it out. Guess he's strictly a pellet and meat fish then.


My elong did the same thing as your rhom. He took a piece of shreeded carrot from my hand chewed once then spit it out. I may just try stuffing pellets into his food as stuffing carrots is pretty hard for smalelr foods. I'll first see if I can inject the carrots with a needle but if not I will try to stuff pellets and use vitachem on his food. For my reds stuffing carrots is pretty easy with silver sides as they are about 5" and the head is already removed so I could stuff pretty much a baby carrot worth of grated cattot into them. Im probably going to look for other vegetables and then try to make some salad mush to stuff in there. They already have pretty good colour but more colour would be nice.
[/quote]

I have 11 one inch reds so they basically just shread everything that falls into the water at the moment but when they get larger I will also probally stuff their food with some veggies aswell. Is there any pure carrotene capsules out on the market? i think if i got my hands on some I could probally just extract all the liquid from the capsule and soak tiger shrimp in it with Vitachem too.


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## Piranha_man

I've been stuffing tilapia and chunks of steak with 25,000 IU carotenoid gelcaps for a week now... starting to see some color enhancement already.
I wonder how long it would take for their color to really burst from such feedings... anybody know? A few weeks maybe? Month?


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## pirana666

You have foto s ? before and after?...


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## Piranha_man

No fotos... I don't have a camera that takes anything decent.
I could try... gotta shoot some pics of their theater room anyway... (I consider it THEIR theater room, not mine. lol)

Only a very slight enhancement at this point... to be honest, it looks like the gold glitter on the reds and the humeral spots on the cariba are more defined as well.
The gold on the reds is incredible... the reddish orange on the pectoral and ventral fins on the cariba are more pronounced as well.


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## Johnny_Zanni

Anything with the RRS Pman?


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## Piranha_man

Johnny_Zanni said:


> Anything with the RRS Pman?


Funny you ask...
I just fed him a chunk of tilapia with a carotenoid gelcap hidden inside.
I'll do this for awhile and see.


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