Color enhancers for Isopods?

[00:00:00]Hello everyone, Ross of Aquamax Pets here. I recently received some questions about using foods to enhance colors in isopods from a patron, Roach Ranch Reptile Supplies. And in this video, we're going to explore the answers. So the first question was, "It is recommended that using color enhancing fish food can also make isopods more colorful. Is this true?"

[00:00:20]The short answer is, in some cases, yes.

[00:00:23]A plain gray isopod fed color enhancing food is not going to turn red or anything, but if you have an isopod that is colorful, offering it the naturally occurring color enhancers in fish food called carotenoids can make those colors more vibrant. Different carotenoids can enhance different colors, particularly, but not limited to red, orange, and yellow.

[00:00:43]Check out these yellow zebra pill bugs.

[00:00:45]Some of this gorgeous yellow is due to genetics, but part of the equation is a carotenoid-rich diet. This is probably one of the most dramatic examples of how carotenoids can influence isopod color, but there are many others.

[00:00:57]Here's another related question. "Is feeding color enhancing foods unnatural?" Well, one could argue that keeping isopods as pets, and therefore feeding them at all, is unnatural, but carotenoids occur all over the place in nature, notably in plant leaves, in algae, and in organisms that eat plant leaves and or algae.

[00:01:18]Since many isopods eat plant leaves and algae, they're encountering carotenoids in the wild. As evidence of this, some colorful wild-caught isopods seem to lose color over time in diets low in carotenoids, but fed carotenoid-rich diets, their color improves.

[00:01:33]Here are some follow-up questions from Roach Ranch Reptile Supplies that I'll answer together.

[00:01:38]"Are there any brands of food that are better than others? What specific nutrients will help with this?

[00:01:43]What about using red marine algae, red spirulina, dusting foods with paprika, or using red leaves for leaf litter?"

[00:01:51]I wouldn't worry as much about the brand as the ingredient list of a particular food. For ingredients that contain carotenoids, look for a fish foods containing things like whole shrimp or krill meal, algae meal, spirulina, astaxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta-carotene.

[00:02:10]I'll put some links to some foods that I use in the description, as well as a link to a website that talks more about carotenoids.

[00:02:17]Sweet potatoes and paprika do indeed contain carotenoids, too.

[00:02:21]As do carrots, which is actually where the name carotenoids get their name.

[00:02:26]I mentioned spirulina a moment ago.

[00:02:28]True spirulina, now scientifically known as Arthrospira platensis, is a cyanobacterium, but it does contain carotenoids and can be a good food.

[00:02:37]Um red spirulina, also known as Haematococcus algae, is a true alga.

[00:02:42]It is very rich in astaxanthin, so certainly an option to add it to your isopod's diet. Generally, I use it for my Daphnia. Now, red fallen leaves that are still fresh enough to be red do likely contain decent amounts of carotenoids, but may encourage pests such as grain mites if they're not sufficiently decomposed when you offer them to your isopods. It seems likely that the carotenoids largely break down as the leaves decompose, but I haven't looked into that process a lot. Basically, I like to feed decomposed leaves to my isopods, and I like to give them carotenoid-rich supplemental foods as well to cover the bases. So, there was another question, are there isopod morphs you wouldn't want to feed carotenoids to uh to keep your white isopods white.

[00:03:23]If you really want your white isopods to look as dazzlingly white as possible, avoid feeding a lot of carotenoid-rich foods.

[00:03:30]Um Cubaris murina glacier, Armadillidium nasatum whiteout, or Porcellionides pruinosus whiteout are a few examples of types of isopods that can become a pale yellow or pink color when fed foods containing decent amounts of carotenoids. It won't hurt your isopods at all, they just won't look snow white.

[00:03:48]And as you may be able to tell, I give mine some color-enhancing foods once in a while.

[00:03:53]So, thanks again Roach Ranch Reptile Supplies for your question and for being one of our patrons.

[00:03:57]So, now I'd like to ask you all, have you fed color enhancing foods to your isopods? If so, which ones? And what are the results that you've seen? Please let me know down in the comments. And thanks for watching. I post videos every Friday with live streams and shorts during the week as well. Please feel free to share, rate, comment, and if you haven't already, subscribe.

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