Color of Ocellaris clowns

[Minh Nguyen]

How do we keep the color of Ocellaris clowns bright orange?
I have a trio of these clowns living in my two Ritteri Anemones. They are tank raise fish. I have seen various pictures of Ocellaris clowns with very bright orange colors. The problem is mine does not these color but rater dull orange mixed with black. They are very healthy and spawned regularly. I feed them a variety diet with Selco and liquid children vitamin supplements. Al my other fish have excellent colors. I also feed color flake food from Brine Shrimp Direct, other flakes, mysis shrimps, and home made frozen foods. Nori for the tangs and angels also.
Anyone who have successfully retain color of these fish please give me some advice. Thanks.

Minh

 

[XXX]

How long have you had them? I have a perc that took well over a year to go from a dull orange to a bright orange. I can't see anything more that you can do as far as feeding. Some fish, like people, might just be different shades of the same color.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

I had them for 1.5 years. They were very bright orange when I got them as babies.
I still love them a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

Minh-

i think you need to feed 'em a diet rich in xanthins and carotenes-try adding 'ocean plankton'(euphasia?)and some brine shrimp regularly-maybe even a 'color flake' as well.

 

[Anonymous]

Some anemones have a rep for causing resident clowns to develop more of the dark pigment, maybe the ritteri is part of the cause. I haven't seen that effect myself. My Ocellaris have always varied from one individual to the next as far as bright orange vs. blacker ones, but have changed little through their lives. (My current crew hangs out with a hadonni; again, no darkening I have noticed).

Of course there is nothing to loose in trying new variety in their diet, knowing clowns I'm sure they won't mind a bit.

 

[Anonymous]

intensity of pigmentation= diet

salmon farmers use astaxanthin directly to produce red color in salmon meat

the astaxanthin comes from a phytoplankton/algae-plankton and shrimp feed on this-it's why they have a high content in their body

 

[npaden]

IME the pigmentation is affected by the host. This is also mentioned in some of the clownfish literature.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[reefland]

I always assumed it was just the adult coloration of the clowns getting darker in color as they age. Interesting that the host anemone could cause it.

Vibragrow pellets are excellent color enhancers.