Colour Enhancing Fish Food

Colour Enhancing Fish Foods

Colour enhancing foods are sometimes grouped in with the totally unethical practice of Dyeing Fish. They are completely different.

Fish Colours

The colours of fish are produced in more than one way. For example, the colour of a Moss Green Tiger Barb is a tyndallisation effect. The colours of most fish come from the food they eat. The most important of these natural food colours is the group of substances called carotenes. One of these is β-Carotene (Beta Carotene). This is pro-vitamin A. Fish, as well as people, can convert this to Vitamin A, and it is an important nutrient. Not all the carotenes can be converted to Vitamin A. One of the ones that can’t is Astaxanthin This occurs naturally in many foods including many types of algae and some types of yeast, particularly Phaffia Yeast. As well as giving fish a suitable pigment they can use, Astaxanthin is a powerful anti-oxidant that is used as a human health food and is considered to be safer than some other anti-oxidants.

Colour Enhancing Foods

There are many different brands of colour enhancing foods. Probably all the ones produced by the major fish food manufacturers have their followers.

I don’t advocate feeding a single type of food to fish and think they should get a varied diet as they would in the wild.

Astaxanthin in Humans

This paragraph was taken from Wikipedia:

“Currently, the primary use for humans is as a food supplement. Research shows that due to astaxanthin's potent antioxidant activity, it may be beneficial in cardiovascular, immune, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Some research has suggested potential as an anti-cancer agent. Research supports the assumption that it protects body tissues from oxidative damage.”

I prefer to eat a variety of natural foods rather than take supplements.