forgive me if this a dumb and obvious question but is there a link with salt and its positive effects on the color in fish?

as most marine fish imo are very colorful and beautiful and the brackish specimens are more colorful than some fresh water only species imo

so can you add salt to fresh water only tanks to brighten up your fish? without causing any stress or harm i know you can do it for sickly fish but can you use it as a color enhancer? cheers DG

Im pretty sure it don't work like that, I have used salt when fish were sick and it didnt bring anymore colour out.

Some lights will bring out the colour in fish, Then there is food that does it too.

oh thanks for that thought i was clever lol i knew about the lighting and food for color but noticed that most fish in salt and brackish were brighter must just be me ah well thanks for the help mitzy

Im not sure about brackish water , dont know too much about it.

Im not sure about brackish water , dont know too much about it.

Good lighting + good food + good water conds = quality/good looking fish

Thats my view on it.

You can get some good looking freshes!

brackish is a mixture of fresh and salt the best example of brackish fish is electric yellow cichlids there also on my wish list lol

apologies are in order been told they are not brackish but require hard water and high ph i think i got that right memory's a bit dodgey

i have a biolux tube it really brings out the colours

The main reason why saltwater and african cichlids are so amazingly colorful is becuase there is a huge amount of competition on the reef and in the African rift lakes. The ridiculous color is used as a signal. Freshwater fish dont face this competition to such an intense level.

ah ok thanks for that v so is it like a comp were the brightest colors wins say territory food mates ect situation or as a fake signal to say im poisonous dont mess with me situation

The main reason why saltwater and african cichlids are so amazingly colorful is becuase there is a huge amount of competition on the reef and in the African rift lakes. The ridiculous color is used as a signal. Freshwater fish dont face this competition to such an intense level.

What makes you say that africans are more colourful than american fish? Look at the tetras, geophagus, apistos, central american cichlids, peacock bass, pikes, etc etc etc.

Reef fish do tend to be brighter coloured than fresh water, I'm guessing its for a variety of reasons, camouflage, attracting mates, scaring off predators etc.