Don't you think you and the shop may have different lights in your tanks? Actually, that matters pretty much!
I had the 10 gallon and my fish under a normal "kitchen-light" fixture and it made my babies appear really pale, especially the red/white one! I was worrying that she may be losing her beautiful red colors! But when I set the 83 gal up, I added a kind of plant lamp that will define reds and blues in fish, and she has never looked more gorgeous All my red fish look wonderful under that light! It has a light pink hue to it For details, it's by the brand Archadia and it's a tropical lamp of some sort, if I remember it correctly. My water is kept on a 25 C (77 F) degree  level, give or take.

I am sorry but I really do not see any relation 

Very true. My light's an LED, but they always looks super pale under it...moreso than when it's off! First thing in the morning when it's really cold everyone looks very bright, but as the day warms up they tend to get lighter. I think temperature DOES have a direct relationship to coloring. One time I was floating one of my fish in a bag in water that was colder so she would adjust to the temperature. As the bag's water changed more to the water of my outdoor pond, my fish's color grew darker and more vivid. This has happened to me on several occasions. It may have something to do with the altitude up here in the mountains. Haha I don't know why that is. I've tried changing the food many times and that has helped a bit, but not drastically.

I know that the shops have different lighting because as they take the fish out of the water it's color changes right away! When I first got Panda she looked yellow. Now she's orange

simple physics Objects according to their temerature absorb certain colours of the light spectrum. This is how we perceive colour.
=> different light spectrum, different temps equals different colour.


Goldiegirl, check out the type of your light and if you want to get the water temperature down ( slowly ) you can put a floating bag with ice cubes in, or a waterbottle filled with ice cubes wich I'd put in another water filled bag, so the fishies cannot touch the icy bottle

How about trying a combination of both? Unless it would be very expensive for you to get new bulbs In that case you could try with some color enhancing foods like special pellets, krill or carrot

I bought krill today and fed it tou our darlings, with carrot and they were crazy  lol

I also managed lately that I can handfeed all of them 

Hey there guys, I am fairly new to having fishies my tank has been operational for 3 days now.
I set the tank up according to all the info i have read in book and the advise from the pet store. I have a 250 ltr tank with about one and a half inches of gravel, seven diffrent fresh water plants with about 50 differnt sprouts and some river rock structures, this has not over crouded the tank though.

I have Aqua one Aquis 1250 series 2 bio and mechanical filter witch cycles 1400 ltrs per hour. I have 2 mirror comet of 4 1/2 inches long one white one orange, 2 red cap comets of 3 inches and 2 gold comets of 3 inches.

I have added prime for chiorine, chioramine ect. stability for good bacteria, conditioning salts, all as instructed by advise and bottle insruction. Food I feed twise a day only what they eat in a small period of time, consist of omega one diet sinking pellet, blood worms and blime shrimp, is there any thing else i need, how can i cool tank down to nice comfy 22 c. thanking you in advance 

Jackno7, as long as temp doesn't go over 28, all is fine. If it's getting hotter, then I'd start the bottle trick.
But the most important is that the temp doesn't fluctuate.

At the moment we have 28 cels outside and inside we've got the ceiling fans going.