Red-eye Puffer (carinotetraodon lorteti)

[MAM]

my lfs just got a batch of male and a batch of female red-eye puffers in. i want i want. i'm am looking for some advice from anyone who owns them or has owned them. i'm not looking for puffer advice in general or for people to do a search and spout off what they read somewhere (i can do that part myself thankyou). i'm looking for people who have had actual personal ownership experiences with this fish.

(i hope i don't come off sounding harsh or snobby, but i really want opinions from people with actual experience....)

first off, did you have more than one in a tank? if so, what size tank? how did they do? would you recommend trying it? i was thinking a male and a female maybe......... but only if they are not too overly aggro towards their own kind when full grown (what i've read has been sort of vague about this......)

what did you find they liked to eat best? the lfs has them chowing on shrimp, but any other suggestions as to what they seemed to just love to have would be good to know (and if anyone says "you have to get snails......" i will hunt you down...jk)

also, just to double check, what i've read said they are fw. just want to be sure. my lfs has them in tanks next to all their bw fish, doesnt' mean theyre keeping them bw, these were available tanks, but i just want to be sure.....

thanks!

 

[LadyMinion]

Klaus Ebert's excellent book on FW/BW puffers confirms that the Red-Eye is a true FW species. Unfortunately, the author does not have any personal experience of these fish or I would quote it here.

Are you in the UK? I would love to see these puffers for myself.

 

[Clare]

Hi,
I haven`t kept these puffers myself but i know a man who has! He writes for Practical Fishkeeping Magazine so his knowledge is very reliable as he is on the expert panel.

I know you can do your own research in general but there are pictures of his and information about them on;
www.thetropicaltank.co.uk. Click on `My Tanks` then follow the links for puffers.
He keeps two together and says they are not aggressive with eachother.
I hope this will be helpful to you, i know you said you didn`t want reasearch things but this is kind of a personal one rather than a general.

I keep 2 figure eight, one 2ft mbu, 2 humpback/dragon puffers and a lineatus (not all together of course)! but unfortunately not any of these. They are apparently fascinating puffers though so good luck with them.

 

[MAM]

no lady minion, USA

clare, thanks, will look at that.

 

[LadyMinion]

there are pictures of his and information about them on;
www.thetropicaltank.co.uk. Click on `My Tanks` then follow the links for puffers.

I don't know if you spotted this Clare, but those puffers are Red-Tailed Redeyed Puffers (Tetradon Irrubesco) which are different from those MAM has found.

Apparantly the two species do get confused quite often, but the lorteti species is sexually dimorphic, unlike irrubesco.

 

[MAM]

yes, the ones i mean are the lorteti (i had wondered what the diff was between the fish in the one tank and the other......found out they had just separated the males and the females....)

 

[LadyMinion]

Just for ease of comparison, here's a photo of the different sexes of lorteti.

Male (left), female (right):

© Klaus Ebert, The Puffers of Fresh and Brackish Waters