Figure 8 Coloration

[Oddball~]

I'm confused about my puffers' coloration. When I wake up in the morning, I'm always concerned about my fish. The colors are bands are very pale, but seem for gradually intensify near the head. Meaning, the tail is pale, but the head has way more color.

However, when it's feeding time, the puffers' colors intensify and they look REALLY healthy and normal... What's going on?!?!

I thought it was the diet, but I feed them:

-Frozen and thawed Hikari Bloodworms
-Gut-Loaded Ghost Shrimp
-Snails, here and there
-Frozen and thawed Crawfish tails

From what I hear, thats a good diet for the puffers...the parameters are fine, too and I keep up with 25%-50% water changes weekly-biweekly.

[Oddball~]

And how long does it take to hatch snail's eggs? I have clear gelatinous bubbles with little white dots in them. I'm assuming they're eggs, but they haven't "hatched" in 2 weeks. Maybe a heater would be better?

[labont865]

All puffers tend to do that, it sounds pretty normal. As long as your tank perameters are good I wouldnt think anything is wrong. At nightime they tend to fade and will brighten up through the day. Its normal. They also brighten up while feeding as a sort of threat gesture to other fish "back off I am here" kinda thing. Nothing to worry bout.

[stellablu]

I put my snails in a 1g jar with an air stone and a weekend feeder. Within a week there were eggs EVERYWHERE and it's been about three weeks that I finally have the tiniest snails sliding around the jar. They grow so slow that I still have to get larger ones from the LFS to give to my puffer.