Effect of Background Color on the Growth Pattern, Breeding Performance and Coloration of Guppy Fish (Poecilia reticulata)

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of tank background color on the growth pattern, breeding performance and coloration of Guppy fish (Poecilia reticulata). Fish were reared in tanks with four different background colors (transparent, red, blue and green) to observe the effect. The outside walls and bottoms of each aquarium were covered with color paper to achieve the colors (red, blue and green), while transparent glass aquarium served as a control. The experiment was conducted in 8-L rectangular glass aquarium with three replicates. Six fish were stocked in each tank and three fish were randomly sampled from the tank after every 15 days. The fish were fed a commercial diet at a daily rate of 5% of their body weight twice a day for 150 days. The best growth and breeding performance was significantly attained in transparent background compare to the other treatments. Among the colored tanks, fish reared in blue tank showed better performance in growth, breeding and survivability. Fish performance was significantly (P<0.05) lowered in larvae reared in aquarium with red background. Tank background color also affected in skin pigmentation significantly, fish in transparent tanks having the highest values of carotenoid (0.00175±0.00004 mg/g) and the lowest in red tanks (0.00092±0.000035 mg/g). Green background enhanced red orange color on fish skin and provide high amount of carotenoid value (0.00143±0.000046 mg/g) than blue (0.00095±0.000025 mg/g). These results clearly suggest that, transparent background could be best for P. reticulata growth and coloration. However, the use of red background should be avoided. But if anyone interested to rear fish in colorful background, one should give proper attention on one’s interest. In case of growth, it could be much better to select blue background however it could be more astute to choose green background whether the interest is pigmentation.