Red Eye Puffer

[Squidward]

Hi All,

My lfs has gotten in some Red Eye Puffers. They are selling them as brackish.
All my research leads me to beleive they are actually fresh water fish.

Can anyone confirm either way?

Also, what is the minimum group size they should be kept in?

Thanks
Squidward

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

This article may help...

http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/article_detail.asp?id=67

 

[nmonks]

Neither Carinotetraodon irrubesco nor Carinotetraodon lorteti are brackish water, though I'm sure they will tolerate slightly brackish water perfectly well. They are not fussy about water chemistry at all, but neutral, slightly soft to moderately hard water is perhaps the ideal.

In my experience, Carinotetraodon irrubesco do well singly and in pairs. If you have sufficient space, you can keep multiple pairs. I had no problems at all keeping a pair in 180 litres. Conversely, in very small tanks, less than 80 litres, my experience is that Carinotetraodon irrubesco tend to be rather shy.

Carinotetraodon lorteti are substantially more aggressive, though this does vary from mild nippiness through to outright hostility. You'll notice that groups of Carinotetraodon lorteti exhibit circular bite marks on their flanks far more often than Carinotetraodon irrubesco. Carinotetraodon lorteti are best kept singly or in groups of one male with one or more females, as space permits.

Cheers, Neale

My lfs has gotten in some Red Eye Puffers. They are selling them as brackish. All my research leads me to beleive they are actually fresh water fish. Can anyone confirm either way?
Also, what is the minimum group size they should be kept in?

 

[Squidward]

Neither Carinotetraodon irrubesco nor Carinotetraodon lorteti are brackish water, though I'm sure they will tolerate slightly brackish water perfectly well. They are not fussy about water chemistry at all, but neutral, slightly soft to moderately hard water is perhaps the ideal.

In my experience, Carinotetraodon irrubesco do well singly and in pairs. If you have sufficient space, you can keep multiple pairs. I had no problems at all keeping a pair in 180 litres. Conversely, in very small tanks, less than 80 litres, my experience is that Carinotetraodon irrubesco tend to be rather shy.

Carinotetraodon lorteti are substantially more aggressive, though this does vary from mild nippiness through to outright hostility. You'll notice that groups of Carinotetraodon lorteti exhibit circular bite marks on their flanks far more often than Carinotetraodon irrubesco. Carinotetraodon lorteti are best kept singly or in groups of one male with one or more females, as space permits.

Cheers, Neale

My lfs has gotten in some Red Eye Puffers. They are selling them as brackish. All my research leads me to beleive they are actually fresh water fish. Can anyone confirm either way?
Also, what is the minimum group size they should be kept in?

Neale,
Thanks for the info.
Are they easy to sex?
If so, what is the difference between males and females?

 

[nmonks]

Yes; in both cases the males have colourful tails (either red or blue-green depending on the species) and brown bodies with a few coloured bands across the flanks (either cream or yellow, depending on the species). Females of both species are mottled brown above with a cream belly, C. irrubesco females having irregular brown stripes on their bellies a well, females a few brownish specks.

Cheers, Neale

Are they easy to sex?
If so, what is the difference between males and females?

 

[Squidward]

Yes; in both cases the males have colourful tails (either red or blue-green depending on the species) and brown bodies with a few coloured bands across the flanks (either cream or yellow, depending on the species). Females of both species are mottled brown above with a cream belly, C. irrubesco females having irregular brown stripes on their bellies a well, females a few brownish specks.

Cheers, Neale

Are they easy to sex?
If so, what is the difference between males and females?

Once again, thanks for the info.
I was at my lfs this morning having another look and the red eyes are C lorteti.
Very tempting.......

 

[nmonks]

They are both terrific fish. C. lorteti are perhaps the prettier of the two species, but C. irrubesco the easier to combine with tankmates, in particular, with South American puffers, the combination working very well and providing movement at all levels of the tank.

Cheers, Neale

Once again, thanks for the info.
I was at my lfs this morning having another look and the red eyes are C lorteti.
Very tempting.......

 

[Squidward]

Hi Neale,

Well went to the lfs on the weekend to get some Red Eyes.
When I asked the person serving me for a pair of Puffers, he asked me if my setup was brackish. I told him no, it was freshwater. He didn't want to sell them to me. I told him that I was in correspondence with THE expert, (mentioned your name but he had never heard of you ) and that they would be ok in fresh.
He told me that theirs were kept in low end brackish, and pointed out that some of their fish had gone very dark and that was because they water wasn't salty enough.
Anyhow I managed to convince him that he could sell me the pair, though he said to me that because I wasn't following his advice, they wouldn't be replaced if they died.

So took them home, and slowly acclimatised them over about 1 1/2 hours.
One died within 24 hours. But the other one seems ok.

It is very shy though. Hides behind some rocks most of the time and rarely comes out.
It has also gone very dark.

Hopefully it will settle down soon.

 

[nmonks]

Are you 100% sure they're Carinotetraodon? These really are freshwater fish.

Sometimes retailers sell the oddest things. I've seen (and bought!) Arothron hispidus as freshwater fish, for example. So any chance of a photo?

Cheers, Neale

 

[Squidward]

Are you 100% sure they're Carinotetraodon? These really are freshwater fish.

Sometimes retailers sell the oddest things. I've seen (and bought!) Arothron hispidus as freshwater fish, for example. So any chance of a photo?

Cheers, Neale

Yes, is definately. I have double checked on a specialist Puffer website.
I will try and get a photo, but as I say, it is very shy at the moment.

 

[Puff the Magic Fish]

For the last few days I have been looking for a pet puffer fish. I researched a lot last night about this puffer and I am really interested in it. But I just have a few questions. If you can not have 2 males in a tank because they will fight with anything red, but they can get along with a female. Could I have 2 female Red Eye Puffer's without them hurting each other or the male attacking one of them?

Thank you

 

[jdizz1986]

Hey guys, good thread! Just ordered 2 red eyed/red bellied puffers, (male and female) and they are arriving friday, very exciting!!!

 

[simonas]

I bought two red eyed puffers the other month they turned out to be Abeis!! Mine are doing well and are a joy to have in my kitchen worktop tank

any pics of yours?

 

[talisker]

I bought two red eyed puffers the other month they turned out to be Abeis!! Mine are doing well and are a joy to have in my kitchen worktop tank

any pics of yours?

i've had a few puffers, dwarf's, green spotted, ceylon but the abei i had was the best character by a mile