need some info

[teknikz]

i am currently in discussions with the Retail Operations Supervisor of a pet store company based in the UK about dyed fish. She has spoken to their suppliers, who say that their fish are not dyed, but they are fed colour-laced foods to enhance colours.

i was under the impression that this only works for certain colours....mainly red....but i do know that Tetra make a food which enhances the fishes colour by means of boosting the pigment production in their skin.

does anyone know anything about colour laced foods....ie..what colours are used and how it works or anything like that.

the store didnt know about dying the fish untill i informed them about it, and now they are trying to stop buying dyed fish from the suppliers, but ive got a feeling that the suppliers are just fobbing them off just to make sales

Thanx....Tek

 

[guppymonkey]

From what I know color enhancing food is hormonal. It is laced with massive amounts of hormones that make the natural pigments in the fish to overload which gives the fish much brighter colors. As far as I know this kind of food wouldn't give a fish coloration like painted (inked) glass fish which have very sharp edges to the colors on/in them. Color enhancing food would give the glass fish more color but it wouldn't be to specific areas of the fish (like in lines of green, red or blue) but would be a more general color change (green or reddish shading).

Also, the hormones that are used in color enhancing food have a tendency to make the fish sick after awhile because of the buildup of hormones. Many dwarf gourami get ulcers because they are fed hormones to give them much greater color so that they look more desirable.