# Feeding Color enhancing food to cherries...



## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

I read somewhere that feeding food with color enhancers will make the cherries more red, but in the long run, will cause problems and lead to early death. Is there any validity in this? I feed mine a combo of Hakari Crab bites, spirulina wafers, and tetra color bites (which I also use in my tanks), and have shockingly red cherry females. But, if it's going to cause them to die sooner, I'd rather not feed them the color food and have their red a bit less intense... Does anyone know about this?


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

As long as it doesnt contain any or very little copper you should be fine.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

I've never heard of a food that shortens the lifespan for a more red cherry shrimp. I suppose if there was such a food that increases redness in shrimp, then it must have a higher content of copper then most algae wafers. The build up of copper could be what shortens the lifespan.

From the food you listed, I feed mine that occassionally and never noticed a difference in lifespan. Cherries are nice and red though.

-John N.


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## erijnal (Apr 5, 2006)

Most dwarf shrimp only last around two years anyway, and by that time they'll have reproduced many times their original population. But yeah, I find it hard to believe that someone would be able to back this claim up with actual observations. There're just too many variables to be able to say that the food is the cause of a shorter lifespan.


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## Cassie (May 27, 2006)

James, is that Team APC new? Congrats! (if not, ignore me!) Yeah, I checked my food and none of them list copper in the ingrediants, so there shouldn't be a problem. Plus it's not like that's the only thing I am feeding them. They are super red and stand out very well against all the green plants!


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