The Puffer Forum

oh, well it is pretty even if it doesn't do that. I always go with natural gravel and sand though. It is cheaper at Home Depot than in a pet store though.

You can easily darken or lighten a fish's color by substrate color, lighting level, and feeding habits. That can make desirable or undesirable colors show more or less, but it cannot bring out or hide a color for which they do or do not not have the genes. Color expression is variable, its absence or presence is genetic. The highest intensity of color is actually both. Health is huge influence in puffers, but specimens such as that glorious red Congo you had some time back are out on the edges of genetic variability. That was a three or four or more Sigma (standard deviations) fish - comparable to a high-level genius IQ in humans. There are lot of 160+ people walking around, but they are never any major part of the population. They are rather a smallish percentage of the total. Or redheads - not huge numbers of those either, but they do show up when the lighting and background is right.

Artificially colored human hair or fish we will not count.

That counts my red hair out...

No amount of red gravel is going to make my TT red, I'm afraid.

Good news: she's biting pieces of krill bounced in front of her!

Are you supposed to admit that?

No one could possible think this was my real color.

how deep of a sand bed do you suggest?

3"

just curious.. because i'm flirting with the idea of getting a congo puffer..

would eco complete mixed with very small gravel work for their substrate?

Sure