FEEDING ORANGE KOI ANGELFISH TO MAINTAIN COLOR
This is a guide to feeding Orange Koi Angelfish. I offer this to help the Angelfish hobbyist understand the importance of properly feeding Orange Kois to intensify and maintain their orange color. If not properly fed, the orange color can and probable will fade. Koi Angelfish have a gene that allows them to retain caroteniods in their body tissue and scales. Caroteniods are the pigment that make carrots orange. If properly feed, orange kois will store this pigment in their tissue and intensify in color as they grow. The color can range from dark gold to dark red-orange. It is important to feed, almost exclusivly, with foods that contain caroteniods in some form, especially while the fish are juveniles. After they reach adult size , it’s not as critical to feed these foods all the time. Foods that contain caroteniods are: color flakes, dried krill, dried ocean plankton, frozen brine shrimp & mysis shrimp, and spirolina algae flakes. There are more, just check the labels. For more in-depth information about orange koi angelfish, see John Melograna’s artical in the February 2004 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine.