Uses of Carophyll for Discus

Breeding discus can be categorized broadly into solid and spotted variety.
- Solid Variety
This is the easiest to breed type. Generally will breed true (breeding true means u will be getting
above 50% of the parents strains). Some breeding true strains are blue diamond, snow white or
golden.
- Spotted Variety
Breeding this fish is hard and a fair amount of luck comes into play. For example: Take 2 fully
spotted adults and breed them, u might end up with only 10% spotted fish. Thus, a lot of pair
changing are being conducted to find the best pairs that will give u the best % of spotted fish. If
this is done, its also possible for a very good pair that has been giving u more than 50% spotted
fishes to skip 2-3 times by producing only 10% spotted during this 2-3 times.
This variety has also been subjected to more color or hormone enhancers to give them better
selling price.
Color Enhancers
Color enhancers are a dangerous tool to play with but unfortunately more than 50% of the fish
breeders worldwide uses this. There are 2 types of color enhancers easily categorized into not
very dangerous (NVD) and dangerous (D). ( u might note that we don’t use the word safe here...)
Coloring a fish is either a 1 step or 2 step practice. 1 step are for solid variety and 2 step are for
spotted variety.
1-step
These are generally used for solid variety. Some of them as follows:
a. Carophyll yellow – Used extensively in yellow fish. Very effective at coloring fish. Only 2-3
days is required to make your fish as yellow as the sun.
b. Carophyll blue – This is a dangerous chemical. Also know as CR5 Hormones being produced
by a Thai Chemical under the Chemical name of Methyl Testosterone. Used mostly in spotted
fish or even blue fish. Once the fish is treated with this CB, it will reflect blue and looks metallic in
color. No matter how light the dosage is, it will harm the liver. There are cases of people selling
blue diamond colored with CB and passing them off as ocean green. Mostly can be seen in
Leopards and Leopard Snakeskins. So a lot of care and attention is needed when u buy this type
of fish, To summarise, hormone fishes have a very short life , generally only few months.
c. Carophyll red - Not very sure of the chemical composition as I have never used this before.
Only fed to red based fish. The reason is that this color will tend to stay a long time before fading
off. Once the fish is hit with CR, it will look a garish red till the tail is red. Not very common
d. Carophyll pink – a natural based pigmentation coloring agent. Also known as astaxanthin.
However, carophyll pink are not pure astaxanthin, rather mixed with other chemical components.
Carophyll pink is approved for use in fish feed in agriculture industry in most fish producing
countries. CP is widely used in coloring red fish and spotted fish. Some breeders will feed heavy
for 1 week and let them fade off before shipping and some will feed light for months. Once a fish
is fed CP, they will look maroonish pink till u stop feeding and the color will fade within 2 weeks.
2- step
Only applicable to spotted variety. To color a spotted fish, u need to bring the spots out and then
color again to bring the body color out. Generally colored in this manner:
a. First – A spotted fish will be fed CP to color up the whole body red. Dosage will be heavy for 3-
5 days. Fish will turn bright red. Color feeding will stop to allow the fish to fade color. In a sense,
CP will bring out the red spots. However, the body will be all red.
b.Second (Option 1) – To make a quick sale, the fish will be administered CB. Once CB is
applied on the fish, it will cover the fish in metallic sheen and making the spots stands out.
c. Second (Option 2) – Some breeders instead of using CB, will allow the fish to fade to almost
colors and administer doses of CR6. This will make the fish keep their spots red and vibrant.
d. Second (Option 3) – Some good breeders will actually leave the fish to fade and doesn’t use
any other chemicals. To buy safe spotted fish, there is no way u can find fully spotted 2” fish. The
safest size to buy is 3”.