Cross River Puffers

[thekarens]

Some folks have asked for pics of the cross river puffs in my local lfs. They have two. I had a heck of a time taking pics because these guys were so curious they didn't want to show the sides of their body. The first 2 pics are the same fish. The last pic is a 2nd cross river.







And just for fun I took a pic of this congo at a different lfs. The poor guy was in with 4 other congos and got his tail chomped off.

[edmlfc1]

Awesome pictures! Thanks for taking the time to get them.


Well guys and gal's does it look like a young fahaka? The first picture I would say it's possible (young fahaka) the last picture I would say has a better chance of being a cross river puffer.

[Sponge bob]

They are so cute, I saw on ThatFishPlace.com they had them for like $300 each.
Poor congo

[hobbes]

Whoa you guys have Congos down in Houston? What fish store is this? I've been looking up in Austin for ages. :[

[thekarens]

City Pets. They just got them in and there's about 5. The one I took a pic of I thought was the prettiest minus the missing tail. There was another yellowish one and the rest were versions of brown.

The same store also has a suvatti and a mbu and one fahaka as far as freshwater puffers go.

[hobbes]

Been calling them but maybe they're closed for Memorial Day. Ah well.. nice selection of puffers.

[thekarens]

They were open today, but closed early. I was there around noon.

[Jase]

Interesting looking, but i think they are young fahakas. or maybe pustuhakas
they have a neat selection there though.

Thanks for taking pics

[LilGreenPuffer]

Poor little Congo.

[Corvus]

They look like a T. lineatus in my opinion. I only see 5 red spots and a number of characters of the typical T. lineatus coloration even on the third picture. T.pustulatus should look like this:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Pustu ... _.jpg.html with many spots and no dark/bright lines as they can be seen on these specimens (e.g. in front of the pectoral fins).

For discussions on the ID of T. pustulatus also see: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=16616&st=0&sk=t&sd ... pustulatus

They appear to have many spots as juveniles and reddish lines as adults. It is - in my opinion - unclear if they are really a separate species instead of a regional variation and if so, by which characters they can be told apart from T. lineatus.

[edmlfc1]

Thanks Corvus,
They actually have these about 2 hours from me. They already sold one for $2500, and if I remember right the person that bought the first one also wants to buy the second one.

[edmlfc1]

T.pustulatus should look like this:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Pustu ... _.jpg.html with many spots and no dark/bright lines as they can be seen on these specimens (e.g. in front of the pectoral fins).

For discussions on the ID of T. pustulatus also see: viewtopic.php?f=56&t=16616&st=0&sk=t&sd ... pustulatus

The links don't work.

[Corvus]

Sorry for the links. Another try:

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Pustu ... _.jpg.html

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=16616&st=0&sk=t&sd ... pustulatus

Well, about the buyers: If they like the fish and feel it is worth that much, they should be happy with it no matter what species it belongs to. Wanting something, just because it is rare and expensive, is quite stupid (my personal opinion).

Given that it is unclear even to science if they are separate species and how they can be differentiated, it's also my opinion it's hard to guarantee for any fish to be a T. pustulatus.

[taureandragon76]

Whoa $2500 someone sure got ripped off