Does anyone have recommendations on what to feed a red Texas to improve it's color and increase it's pearls? Also should I feed a different food after I am done with grooming it?
Best food for Red Texas?
- Thread starter Cichlids keeper
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Me personal recommendation would be to use whatever staple pellet you prefer (NLS, Northfin, etc.) and supplement with Scarlets Dark Rise for pearl and Scarlets Endless Red for color. For target grooming pearl and color those two foods are the best in my opinion.
Couldn't find the full ingredient list, but two are very interesting, Japanese minerals and Lucartin Pink. First seems like just a marketing term, couldn't find anything on second beside that this food has it.
I make no claims that it is the best food from a nutritional standpoint. It is made in Thailand so who knows what exactly is in it. All I know is if you want to specifically "groom pearls and color" as the OP is looking to do, it works great! Take it or leave it.
I didn't mean anything against you. I though you might know about actual ingredient.
My personal view is, if any food gives results and ingredients are shady it's better to avoid it. Because we might be trading health for looks. Informed decision of choosing Carophyll Pink/Red might be better than getting something unknown. In a imaginary world, I would take steroids in field of bodybuilding than a supplement with a secret ingredient that claims better result and no side effects.
I should have added this, there is limit to what food can do to the fish and it's not much. The genetic plays the most important role. A good nutritional food will help your fish to reach it's genetic potential.
NLS ultrared contains Astaxanthin which is very potent (It make flamingos pink, they are born white). So it is pushing your fish a little further in red color.
Spirulina in food will help improve pearls. Both UltraRed and AlgaeMax has Spirulina in it.
One more thing you can do but that's not food is, darker background color.
I did not take it as anything against me. To answer your question, the ingredients are listed as being- Fish meal, tuna extract, shrimp meal, wheat flour, broken rice, spirulina, lecitin, squid oil, astaxanthin, special formula multivitamins, japanese minerals. I get what you are saying about unknown secret ingredients, but I also know myself and many others feed this food (and others) for grooming with great results. I personally have never seen any negitive side affects with the grooming foods I feed, with the way I feed them (sparingly).
I personally classify food into two categories - staple food e.g. NLS, Northfin, Xtream, Hikari, Excalibur, etc., and grooming food e.g. Scarlets, Humpy Head, JDL, etc. IN MY OPINION they both have a place in the hobby.
I am not an anyway claiming the food I feed or the way I do things to be "the best", "right way", or "only way" but it works for me!
I agree that "there is a limit to what food can do for a fish" and that "genetics play the most important roll" but, there are absolutely foods that will help bring out color, pearls, and head better than others.
Not sure lecitin is, may be misspelled LECITHIN that I found on google search, which seems like energy source for fish. Astaxanthin would be the one actually making fish red, Carophyll Pink/Red are used as synthetic version of Astaxanthin. I think the red color results you are seeing are from Astaxanthin and I would choose a food containing natural variant of it (I am not sure which one Scarlets uses). Beside that the food seems to include filler (rice). Their advertised Lucartin Pink is not found in there, may be different name of Carophyll.
We as a hobbyist wouldn't see the bad effects if there are any, because we have limited fish, no comparable data set and we do not/can not dissect the fish. I assume big brands like NLS, northfin put (more) money in to r&d for long term effects.
I am not sure about why we need staple and grooming food. If they are supposed to be fed together or alternate then why not choose some other food which is average of both?
NLS, Northfin are quality foods and will bring out the best in fish. If something else is bringing out colors/pearls/head more then they are mostly using chemicals or hormones.
Hikari is best food among cheap foods. Excalibur doesn't look to have fillers but seems like very expensive food, most types have unnecessarily high protein (original formula lists 47% and mass effect 57%). I do not have experience with Xtream. I used to feed humpy head exclusively 10 years ago but it seems to have a bad rep overall.
