So there is a discussion on another forum regarding the Salt Creek Pumilio of Bastimentos, someone asked if the green on the Salt Creek morph could be enhanced by supplementation, interesting question? I know red/orange is easy to enhance but I have never heard of green being brought out or really a need for it. Many of the salties were green & red/orange, many of the CB do not have that green, anyone ever try supplementing green?

That is a good question.....Not even sure what substances would highlight green with supplimentation. Since most frogs are not green with the exception of some O. pumilio I am sure the reason why it has never really came up from what I have read threw the boards. I will do some researching on this and report back what might be out there.....

An excerpt from webexhibits.org

"In the typical green frog, light penetrates to the iridophores, which act like tiny mirrors to reflect and scatter mostly blue light back into the xanthophores above them. The xanthophores contain yellow pigments, and act as yellow filters so the light escaping to the skin surface appears green to our eyes. If a frog lacks the yellow xanthophores, blue light scatters back and the frog appears bright blue. Iridophores do not synthesize pigments, but reflect and refract color. They contain platelets that produce a scattering effect. The real advantage to these stacks of pigment cells lies in their potential to create color changes. The animal can darken its color by moving the melanin pigment. By manipulating the three types of cells, a wide range of colors can be produced, usually extending from bright green to shades of brown and grey. "

So it isn't green that we need to supplement for but yellow....

If I remember correctly, I believe there are no known substances that enhance blue/green colors, only one that enhance red/yellow colors.


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Chlorophyll containing supplements help with blues, greens, and yellows in cichlids. Such as: Haematococcus algae, chlorella and various types of spirulina. In addition to minerals from clays etc. When fed to young fish they retain their color into adulthood, if supplemented every so often as adults (I have even tried without supplementing into adulthood and they still keep their color), but adults only retain the color temporarily as long as the food is given on a regular basis. I have fed this cichlid food to mice prior to feeding them to my snakes, and let me tell you my oketee is fully colored up at less than 7 months of age, and even my adult snowflake corn started to go pink/yellow before I stopped giving it to her (as I like her white... not being racist [can one be racist towards snake color?] its just how I prefer her), her color went back to normal after a few sheds. Obviously my snakes are not blue or green, but my fish were, and both exhibited strong color change when supplemented.

I wonder if flies dusted in spirulina algea would help enhance the yellows and greens?....HMMMM

I was going to say either try that, or feed some isopods some danichi color FX (i have veggie FX, color fx, and color supreme... its the food I was talking about above) and then feed them to the frogs. I am going to start a culture of isopods and springs tonight when I get back from the library and feed them exclusively with this food for a few months (if anything I will get brighter orange isos and "pinker" springs /shrug).

I've heard that anecdotal story about spirulina for some time now. I've never noticed a difference in the thousands of Cichlids I've raised. However since it is very nutritious it probably will do the frogs some good.
Has anyone ever tried dusting ff's with New Life Spectrum?


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I have not....I do have some 100% organic powdered spirulina that is as fine or finer then the supplements we give. I will start trying a every other or every third feeding with some dusted flies and see if I can see any results. I am sure it will take a couple weeks of supplementing before there is any results if there is any.....

Are isopods able to be gut loaded?