Freshwater Puffer I.d.

[slamster17]

well, my boss started letting me pick out fish to bring in and red eye puffers were on the list. so she ordered one and its deffinately not c. lorteti, or c. irrubesco. it has a red spot outlined in blue and it has a yellow stomach. it is basically a mottled green/olive/tan/dark green in color, with red eyes. could this be t. cochinchinensis? and if so is it a good find?

 

[slamster17]

does anybody know?

 

[Rocker]

It could be one of many puffers labelled as 'red eye'. Without a picture anyone would be guessing. Even then if its one of the target group don't expect 100% identity.

 

[nmonks]

slamster17 --

The fish you describe sounds a lot like T. cochinchinensis. That fish is sometimes also called the Fang puffer. Anyway, it has red eyes, and on the flanks at the level of the dorsal/anal fin it has red spot circled with a darker colour and then circled again by a yellowish brown. The background pattern is covered with roughly circular spots; these spots lighter in the centre and darker on the outside.

These are very nasty puffers, generally considered among the least sociable of a pretty unsociable bunch. They're quite pretty though, and easy to keep. See page 21 in the Aqualog book.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[slamster17]

yea, thanks neale, when i saw it even at the store i immediately thought cochinchinensis. so is it a good find? do yuo have any personal expierience with them? will it eat small guppies?

thanks

 

[nmonks]

Provided you have an aquarium to set aside for this fish, it's certainly an interesting and attractive species. It is apparently easy to breed by puffer standards, though given the territoriality of this species, getting the two fish not to attack each other first may take some doing.

I have no personal experience of this fish. It isn't widely traded. My puffer roster is limited to one South American and a pair (hopefully) of red-tail, red-eye puffers. The one thing I noticed about this fish when I saw it on sale last were the very long teeth. The store had had it in stock a while and had been unable to put anything else with it. I guess this suggests two things: its teeth grow quickly, and it is very antisocial.

It isn't a fish eater, though a hungry specimen might take a guppy for want of anything else. Given its teeth and overall shape, it would seem to be a pretty standard snail and shrimp eater. Klaus Ebert recommends mussels for this fish as a staple diet.

(I personally don't like feeding even piscivorous fish live guppies for various practical and ethical reasons I've enumerated elsewhere on this forum and in print.)

Cheers,

Neale

yea, thanks neale, when i saw it even at the store i immediately thought cochinchinensis. so is it a good find? do yuo have any personal expierience with them? will it eat small guppies?

thanks

 

[slamster17]

thanks again neale. i was really hoping for either some lorteti, or irrubescos, but this guy is just as interesting and i didnt want to watch him rot in the store that i work at almost everyday.
illg et some pics up soon.

 

[Rocker]

There is every chance the puffer is a T.cochchinchensis but the description could also apply to several other puffers. Care is basically the same although there are differences in adult size which has to be taken into consideration when housing this puffer. The fangs puffer does need a diet of snails but is not noted for fast tooth growth. The fangs puffer is widely available in the trade and many puffers are being mis labled as the 'fangs'. These puffers as with the majority of puffers are very aggressive and should be kept as a singleton.