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Ok, here's the deal.

In my dad's 55 gallon tank, all of his fish have nice deep colors, like the clown loaches are really deep orange, and the white clouds are like a dark brown with exelent iridescent fins (when they flare them)

Well, in one of my tanks, my fish dont look as nice (still havent figured it out)

I know there are color enhancing foods, but i dont see anything for bottom feeders.

What can I feed them to enhanse their colors? I can try to feed them peas, or some kind of vegetables, but will their colors get enhanced? What i really want to know, is there a food that will make their colors more natural?

Also, I have a 5500k natural daylight bulb, and a actinic bulb (I think it is 17000k)

The first thing to do is make sure you have good water quality. Fish that are living in dirty water get stressed and sick, and their colors fade away. What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? If you don't have a test kit, now is the time to buy one.

Feeding your fish live food (and making sure you do regular water changes, helping to keep the water quality high) is one of the best ways to make them show color. A well-fed fish that gets eats plenty of live foods really shines.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

i have 5 ppm nitrates.

All other levels are good.

My fish have good colors, there just not as good as in the other tank.

I feed them tetramin tropicle granules in the morning, and in the afternoon, i feed then tetramin sinking pellets, and i might give them some shrimp pellets later, but i have been alternating like shrimp one day, pellets the other.

We feed the fish the SAME food, and really.. theres not really anything different about the tanks.

oh yea, my dad's tank has 1 light that is like purple-ish.

Maby that ius why his fish's colors look better?

Possibly. Maybe he also has a dark background/gravel or something. Flourecent lights on dark usually brings out colors better. Try expanding your feeding spectrum. Clowns will eat just about anything---vegetables, beef heart, garlic soaked bloodworms (I didn't know you could soak fish food in garlic until recently), carrots, etc. Variety will only help the fish.

For reds and orange colors, any veggies with carritine will help.

IMO, I think it is the lights. Why dont' you try taking your dad's lights and placing them on your tank, and see if it makes a difference. If it does, you know what to do. Different types of lighting will show different colors more or less, on fish. If your dad's lights are purplish colors, I am thinking they are more of grow light types for plants, or the ordinary fish tanks lights. Most fish do not require high lighting to give off the best colors, and actually it is quite the opposite for most fish, in that for the best colors to show, they need lower lighting levels.

HTH.....

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There is always a bigger fish...

My dads lights are different than in my tank.

Also, his tank is like 1/2 as bright as mine.

I have 2 t5 lights (15w) and he has 1 t8(probably like 20w)

I was only running one light before, but the guy at the LFS said it would burn the ballast out.

Anyways, I will try feeding them carrots and stuff like that.

I posted this in another thread, but i fed my clown loaches frozen blood worms, and they didnt like them, they just kept spitting them back out... do you think it is because they didnt like them, or because they wernt used to them?

Its hard to say, as my clowns love them.

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There is always a bigger fish...

my clowns went on a frenzy for them today... i guess they wernt in the mood yesterday.

I am feeding them carrots right now.. they dont really like them, but they are pecking at it.

Maby, they will turn better colors.

It's probably the lights. 15,000+k bulbs tend to make colors dull and washed out. I've got 18,000k, 2400k, 4200k, and 6700k over my 29g...the wide range of colors give it a nice balance

i thought high k bulbs were suppose to enhanse fish's colors?

This is an actinic bulb BTW.

From what I was told, and later experiencd, high k range make colors appear very washed out. I was told by many a person that they make things washed out, and I was never told the opposite.

thanks pancake.

They did an experiment at my LFS though with chiclids.

They has 1 regular bulb, and 1 actinic bulb. The fish looked exelent, then when they put 2 regular bulbs in, the fish looked less- shimering.

I will try to put the other bulb in my tank later today.

I have noticed that light has a lot to do with the colour of ones fish. I've noticed that whenever a person takes a photo of their clown loaches, they always have bright red tails. I took a photo with a dig cam and noticed the same thing, whereas in reality, they look a little more drab (though you can still tell where the colours from the photo came from).

Bright light on dark backgrounds make for excellent for the colours of ones fish!

I changed the light this morning, and after i turned it on, all of my fish's colors literally dissapeared.. what is goin on