Astaxanthin enhanced colors

Do any of you use astaxanthin to enhance colors on your natives? Here's a spawning male brook out of my trout pond that was fed astaxanthin enhanced feed. I hope to produce and grow out feed trained pumpkinseeds of which some may be sold to the native aquarium fish market. Do you think the same feed will enhance their colors too?

Edited by az9, 29 November 2009 - 09:25 PM.

After seeing that picture I may have to start! I have done a little research on the stuff and have pondered buying some and using it as a feed additive, but I have no firsthand experience.

That's beautiful.

I would like to see how this effects darter coloration.

It might not work with darters, because they have a unique pigment system very different from other fishes. Or it might just work differently...

Bruce please tell us more about how/why darter pigments & color control is different.

darters ... have a unique pigment system very different from other fishes.

This is the abstract from a Master's thesis by Richard Pearsall, "The Comparative Biochemistry of Darter Chromoprotein Pigments", at Duquesne University under the direction of Brady Porter. The fact that these pigments are flavoproteins rather than carotenoproteins is the key finding, since such pigments are unknown in other vertebrates. Apparently they are visible as different colors depending on their concentration, also somewhat different from more typical pigments.

Recent studies reveal the blue and green colorations found in the integument of many Percid fish called darters (genus Etheostoma) represent true pigments; apparently a novel type of vertebrate coloration. A comparative study to biochemically characterize the blue integumental pigment of the rainbow darter, Etheostoma caeruleum, and the green integumental pigment in the greenside darter, Etheostoma blennioides, is described. Both the pigments are extractable from their integument in aqueous solutions which indicates that they are not structural but true pigmentary colors. UV-Visible spectrometry, Proteinase K degradation experiments, and amino acid analysis confirm that both pigments are types of chromoproteins. Although both pigments are closely related, they appear to exhibit structural differences in molecular weight, banding pattern revealed via SDS-PAGE, and chromophore/protein association. Furthermore, these pigments appear to lack a metallic chrome and do not appear to be carotenoproteins. Their strong fluorescent qualities indicate they could be a type of flavoprotein.

At this time I would be slow to say the darters have a unique coloration system, except when compared to other more studied groups. I think it is very likely other fish groups, i.e. sunfishes, have a similar system in respect to blues, greens and some yellows. They just have not been studied yet.

Cool, i had heard that blues and greens in animals were generally achieved by refracting light with guanine crystals in the skin (or scales or feathers), but I didn't know what role true pigments did or didn't play. Ive seen dead green snakes turn blue when their yellow pigment fades. So a bright blue Malawi peacock cichlid has NO blue pigment, and a bright green bird wrasse has NO green pigment? (Or maybe Pearsall and Porter have some more looking around to do).

This is the abstract from a Master's thesis by Richard Pearsall, "The Comparative Biochemistry of Darter Chromoprotein Pigments", at Duquesne University under the direction of Brady Porter. The fact that these pigments are flavoproteins rather than carotenoproteins is the key finding, since such pigments are unknown in other vertebrates. Apparently they are visible as different colors depending on their concentration, also somewhat different from more typical pigments.

Recent studies reveal the blue and green colorations found in the integument of many Percid fish called darters (genus Etheostoma) represent true pigments; apparently a novel type of vertebrate coloration. A comparative study to biochemically characterize the blue integumental pigment of the rainbow darter, Etheostoma caeruleum, and the green integumental pigment in the greenside darter, Etheostoma blennioides, is described. Both the pigments are extractable from their integument in aqueous solutions which indicates that they are not structural but true pigmentary colors. UV-Visible spectrometry, Proteinase K degradation experiments, and amino acid analysis confirm that both pigments are types of chromoproteins. Although both pigments are closely related, they appear to exhibit structural differences in molecular weight, banding pattern revealed via SDS-PAGE, and chromophore/protein association. Furthermore, these pigments appear to lack a metallic chrome and do not appear to be carotenoproteins. Their strong fluorescent qualities indicate they could be a type of flavoprotein.

At this time I would be slow to say the darters have a unique coloration system, except when compared to other more studied groups. I think it is very likely other fish groups, i.e. sunfishes, have a similar system in respect to blues, greens and some yellows. They just have not been studied yet.

Yeah, you have a point. From what I've seen, plant carotenoids are fairly well characterized (many, many) while they haven't been as thoroughly studied in animals. But I think the basic palette of chromataphore pigments is known for fishes; let's face it, darters are an obscure group in the big scheme of things and maybe especially for biochemists.

Wow, that's really interesting. Thanks for the discussion guys. I have a friend whom I go to school with that is a biology/chem major and her and I got into a discussion a few months ago about color expression in fish. I will have to send this along to her. Cool stuff!

After seeing that picture I may have to start! I have done a little research on the stuff and have pondered buying some and using it as a feed additive, but I have no firsthand experience.

For what it's worth the feed came already with it. I just had to special order it. It was about 3 dollars more for a 50 lb. bag vs. regular feed. It's Aquamax Purina Mills feed 5D-19. I can get it anywhere Purina products are sold. It is seasonal though and I can't get it from late fall to early spring.

The pellets will be too big for the smaller PS's but I do a lot of hydrating of feeds so hydrating it and then wet crumbling won't be a problem. On a funny note I have perch and bluegills that have to be really hungry to eat the dry form right out of the bag anymore. They prefer the soft hydrated version I make in zip lock bags.

Edited by az9, 30 November 2009 - 10:17 PM.

Here's another one:



It's a shame I had to harvest them earlier than I wanted to. I got them to 19 1/4 inches as two year olds with an average length of 16 to 18 inches. Unfortunately they got stressed starting in late August and many came down with some bacterial issues. If I could have kept them for another year they would have been 20 to 23 inches. The pond may get just a little too warm in late summer leading to some lower than optimum oxygen levels at night. Aerating heavily only warms the water more. I also have prolific Chara in the pond which may reduce oxygen levels at night. and I've got iron issues in the well water which may stress the trout by irritating their gills.

If I want to grow out trophy brook trout again I'm going to have to put in a smaller pond(s), line them to discourage macrophytes, and remove the iron in the ground water before use. Most likely some kind of hybrid flow through RAS system as removing iron from a complete flow through system is problematic.

Edited by az9, 01 December 2009 - 07:26 PM.

For keeping your trout pond cool, how about hanging greenhouse shade cloth over a PVC or steel pipe frame, at least on the south side of the pond.

For keeping your trout pond cool, how about hanging greenhouse shade cloth over a PVC or steel pipe frame, at least on the south side of the pond.

I've done that but the pond is quite large at 88 by 59 feet. I've also heard of folks floating closed cell styrofoam in the water along the shore.

However I'm fascinated by the idea of using much less water or upping the carrying capacity significantly with the well capacity I do have by using an RAS approach. I do have a copy of system that was built for research just for brook trout and worked quite well. It even used UV to sterilize the water and eliminate pathogens.

Here's the best picture:

Edited by az9, 02 December 2009 - 07:27 PM.