Flake food

[stunner]

Dumb question, but I've been curious...are the different colours in a can of flake food representative of different ingredients? (ie. green flake is more veggie, and orange/tan/red flakes have more protein) Or are they coloured differently by the manufacturers just for kicks?

[Incredulous_Ed]

i thin they are just colored that way just for the "kicks."

[MeganL3985]

I've often wondered the same thing

[blu]

Mabey the green ones contain algae? Ive also wondered this but mabey it makes them look more colorful to appeal to the buyer not the fish....they do this with catfood bright bag and colorful food...the only conclusion for this is to appeal to the owner since cats cant see the color and dont really care.The color doesnt necessarily mean more nutritious but they stand out more.

[cocoa_pleco]

i think its natural. the light tank are shrimp meal i think, green is spirulina, and the red is beef heart etc

[blu]

Probobly is but some flakes have several ingredients but same color flakes..idk just thought I would put up another possibility lol.

[CAF]

I have to agree with Cocoa.... I have seen individual colors such as spirulina, brine, and beef heart... so that maybe why flake food has different colors.

[Incredulous_Ed]

I think it is colored that way so when you buy it it, you think "whoa, this is colorful, it must be better than bland colored flake food." Just my 2 cents.

[IRONHEAD]

I'm pretty sure the colors are just to add appeal because if you look at the label of your colored fish food you will see under ingredients the dyes and lakes used to color the food. ie. BLUE 2 LAKE, RED 3 DYE, YELLOW 5 LAKE and so on. It's just food coloring. Tropical fish food is colored just to associate the food more with the type of fish its for (Advertising). People who don't realize this often buy more expensive brands of food cause they think its somehow better than another brand because of color. Total SpectraMax Superior Flake tropical fish food is just a bland color and that is because it contains no lakes or dye.

[Fishguy2727]

It depends on the company. Lower quality foods do it for you, higher quality ones there is a difference betweeen the flakes.

[zackish]

I am sure it has something to do with the ingredients but not really a big deal.
I use Omega One and the marine flakes are darker than the regular tropical flakes.....that is because they use different ingredients so that would be a good assumption.

[IRONHEAD]

Yes but most of the time (other than the quality of the food) the color is just lakes and dyes. The amount of dye used most varies by company and that may affect the darkness of the color. I'm not saying that all food is the same quality or anything.

[Fishguy2727]

Basically just check the ingredients, if they are not any artificial colors than it is from varying ingredients from flake type to flake type.