The Puffer Forum

Satan laying around after a meal. LOL hes cute.

is that just the flash or is he that light?

He can't believe he ate the whooooole thing!

The Bruce wrote:is that just the flash or is he that light?

mine is that light to most of the time....not all of us can have dark beautiful colored fahakas like you....haha

apachepufferman wrote:

The Bruce wrote:is that just the flash or is he that light?

mine is that light to most of the time....not all of us can have dark beautiful colored fahakas like you....haha

Maybe I'm just lucky but mine, at 3" is a beautiful dark color. I wish I had a camera to post pics. It's not substrate in my case either, he's on a tan sand bed. Just out of curiousity, what do you keep your pH and temperature at and do you know your GH and KH?

yeah my gh is over 180 and my kh is over 240. my test kit only goes that high and it hit those colors imediatly. my ph is 7.5-8.0 ish I have a hard time reading the colors when they are that close. they never change from those and all my tanks are that way.

what are yours?

thanks for the link to tank builders.

apachepufferman wrote:yeah my gh is over 180 and my kh is over 240. my test kit only goes that high and it hit those colors imediatly. my ph is 7.5-8.0 ish I have a hard time reading the colors when they are that close. they never change from those and all my tanks are that way.

what are yours?

thanks for the link to tank builders.

GH of app. 80-90 ppm, a KH of app 90 ppm and a pH of 7.2. I have to *work* to get my GH and KH that high.

Hope you got some ideas off the link, good luck with the monster tank.

hmm thats interesting. I asked grubbster to add his two cents in on this as well for his puffer. If his gh and kh are lower like yours I would be interested to see if i got mine down to those levels if he would show his colors more.

I have been noticing this last week that he is getting more red so it might be a comfort thing for them. He has been very shy towards me till he got sick. He must have finally realized that its me who is taking care of him; not himself. He is a lot more concerned with my going ons when I am moving about the house.

apachepufferman wrote:hmm thats interesting. I asked grubbster to add his two cents in on this as well for his puffer. If his gh and kh are lower like yours I would be interested to see if i got mine down to those levels if he would show his colors more.

I have been noticing this last week that he is getting more red so it might be a comfort thing for them. He has been very shy towards me till he got sick. He must have finally realized that its me who is taking care of him; not himself. He is a lot more concerned with my going ons when I am moving about the house.

I'd like to hear about his too, this whole thing has gotten me interested in evvironmental versus genetic versus emotional cues in relation to their coloration.
Unfortunately for you , if a lower GH or KH is a factor, it's much harder to lower them than to raise them. I'm really digging this little guy. My other one was very interactive but was shy around other people. It would hide whenever someone other than me came near the tank. This guy is thrilled to see anybody, eats from my fingers and is always looking for attention.

Hi,

I'll do a full test in the morning, I don't have a kit for KH and GH but my lfs said they'd test it for me - their view was that it would be 'very high' based on the tap water we have around here. I'll post up results tomorrow.

OK, full test done before any water change this week, so this is as bad as it gets before maintenance! Remember though, he is a relatively small fish in a fairly large tank and is only fed what he eats so I don't get any real quality issues. Substrate is gravel, and tank has bogwood and quite a few plants. The only 'issue' I have is hairy algae so the lights are only on for 7 hours per day.

PH = 7.5
GH = 200
KH = 150
Ammonia = zero
Nitrite < 0.1
Nitrate < 5
Phosphate = 2.0
Temperature = 79 - 80 F
Water going in is treated with Nutrafin Aqua plus conditioner
Ferts - Nutrafin Plant Gro

Food is mainly defrosted mussel but also live feeder shrimps and snails. Sometimes bloodworm, brineshrimp, defrosted prawn. He's not keep on cockles.

Hope this helps!

grubbster wrote:PH = 7.5
GH = 200
KH = 150
Ammonia = zero
Nitrite < 0.1
Nitrate < 5
Phosphate = 2.0
Temperature = 79 - 80 F
Water going in is treated with Nutrafin Aqua plus conditioner
Ferts - Nutrafin Plant Gro

Food is mainly defrosted mussel but also live feeder shrimps and snails. Sometimes bloodworm, brineshrimp, defrosted prawn. He's not keep on cockles.

Hope this helps!

thanks for the unput grubbster. I guess the hardness isn't a real issue.

Bawb2u wrote:I'd like to hear about his too, this whole thing has gotten me interested in evvironmental versus genetic versus emotional cues in relation to their coloration.
Unfortunately for you , if a lower GH or KH is a factor, it's much harder to lower them than to raise them. I'm really digging this little guy. My other one was very interactive but was shy around other people. It would hide whenever someone other than me came near the tank. This guy is thrilled to see anybody, eats from my fingers and is always looking for attention.

Yesterday mine was showing off his colors without any of the cammo spotting on his side. I think that a lot of the coloring issues is from stress and comfort. He isn't dark but he did have solid unbroken lines. It was nice to see.