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Is there any way to make my bolivian ram any more colorful?

mine looks like this:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/photos/gallery.asp?id=bolivian_profile&page=4A644C3A456C4179493737E38998A74E9369A35694B283E935839A8DA1009A3B

can I make it look like this?
http://www.azgardens.com/images/Ram-Bolivian.gif

Tank details, please. How large is it, what are the water parameters, what tankmates, what kind of cover for the fish, and how long have you had it? I've got a couple of basic suggestions in mind, but I'd like to know more about your tank and fish before jumping to conclusions.

Last edited by sirbooks at 09-Dec-2005 05:49

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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."

The first one is a female, the second one is a male. Males in nature are usually more colourful than the females, so if yours is a female as well, there's only so much you can do.

There are few things that play part in the colouration of your fish. The first and most important are genes. Those fish are usually inbred for so many generations that their colours fade over time and they will never be as colourful as fish from better stock. Other factors are diet, stress levels, water conditions, whether it has a mate (of the opposite sex, of course) and... lighting.

The easiest thing you can do to get your fish colour up more would be to use a fluorescent tube that will highlight its colour, which are tubes in the range of 5000K as they peak on the red end of the spectrum and highlight the pink in the fins and also the yellow. Adding plants (real, not fake, they know the difference) to your tank, if you don't already have them, will also help a lot as it makes them feel more secure. You don't need it to go nuts over plants, the easiest plants in a layout that can supply a cover when the fish wants to hide will do. Feeding live or frozen blood worms twice a week will also get it to shine a bit more.

As for water conditions, I wouldn't go out of my way to change them if I were you, unless you seriously considering breeding those fish and you do some research to know what you're getting yourself into.

Hope this helps.

To get a good colour from any fish it must have been breed with the good colours. The loss of colouration has many factors, water conditions, tank type and others in the tank, feeding, evan as stated the type of lighting used.

If you have all the above correct it could be just a poor quality inbreed fish.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tanks]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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