What color substrate for a GSP?

[zookey]

I have been racking my brain as to why this GSP I took in is almost always gray with his neon green halo. He is a picky eater so I thought it was his food or from having his previous tank broken and being transported and added to a different tank... stress maybe. I have not been making any real changes in his tank for a few weeks now, other than raising his salinity slowly so not to shock him. His belly is always as white as snow and if his halo was any brighter he could be used as a flashlight. But why will he not "green up".

Anyway I was looking around and noticed many of you have white substrates with all the puffers. Most of you are using sand, maybe that is why it is white, IDK.

I am using small aquarium rock. It is a mix of natural colors but I had placed some socks of black and turquoise gravel in his tank to get it seeded for his new tank that I will be setting up shortly. I am wondering if the darker substrate would cause him to keep his darker gray coloring in order to camouflage himself in the tank better. I feel bad for him if he is sad.... I look at the poor little GSPs at WalMart in the barren tanks, with no salt, and being forced to eat flakes -- yet they are all happy green colored.

Do you all think if I had a lighter substrate he would green up ..... he would be such a beautiful fish if his entire body glowed like his halo does. I assume the darker colors means he is not happy.... I just want him to be happy... what do you suggest I do?

[Pufferpunk]

Aragonite sand is preferred to help maintain a steady pH of around 8. It does cone in a variety of colors. Puffers are adept at camouflage & will try their best to match their habitat. There may be nothing more wrong with your puffer than that.

[zookey]

So you think that if I lighten up/ brighten up Lava's surroundings that he will lighten up as well?

I don't know if I can find the aragonite sand around here. But will look into it. As far as stabalizing my pH... out of the tap it is just over 8.5 and nothing I have done in the freshwater tanks has ever made it change. Will the Aragonite sand lower the pH to 8? Or does the pH change as the SG rises?

So far I have not seen any changes in my pH and my SG is currently at 1.0003. I miscalculated the salt when I did the water change this weekend. Planned on raising it .0002 every week but only raised it .0001 this week by miscalculation. But if I am going to miscalculate I guess it was better to under salt than over salt and damage my cycle.

[Pufferpunk]

Nothing wrong with raising it slower. If your tap water's pH is that high, then you really don't have to worry about aragonite substrate. Just go with something more natural/lighter & the puffer should lighten/brighten up.