(nice article by Bob) True! Brine shrimp does enhance the red / pink hues of fish. It is from eating algae loaded with artemia in brackish water that flamingos develop their pink feather coloration. When feeding freshwater fish, it is important to take great care to _thoroughly rinse out_ the salt water that brine shrimp are hatched in for the sake of sensitive Amazon fish and planted fish tanks. We learned this the hard way! Salt raises conductivity . . . and does not evaporate out when water does. Note: it appears that Xtreme flakes are red, in part at least, due to krill -- which is a good source of carotene. We have some fairly young discus that are coloring up as they eat rinsed BBS (baby brine shrimp) along with crushed up Xtreme flakes.
(nice article by Bob) True! Brine shrimp does enhance the red / pink hues of fish. It is from eating algae loaded with artemia in brackish water that flamingos develop their pink feather coloration. When feeding freshwater fish, it is important to take great care to _thoroughly rinse out_ the salt water that brine shrimp are hatched in for the sake of sensitive Amazon fish and planted fish tanks. We learned this the hard way! Salt raises conductivity . . . and does not evaporate out when water does. Note: it appears that Xtreme flakes are red, in part at least, due to krill -- which is a good source of carotene. We have some fairly young discus that are coloring up as they eat rinsed BBS (baby brine shrimp) along with crushed up Xtreme flakes.
Our own Bob Bock has an informative page on color enhancing foods, including dried shrimp: http://www.sonnysfishroom.com/?page_id=252