to trust or not to trust????

[Daystate]

I went back to the LFS today where i got my puffer, after speaking with the manager or AMWELL aquatics, Essex, He was telling me that the puffer he sold me was definatly a tetradon steindacherni, apparently a fish from India which is only found in fresh water streams, not esturine waters. He seems positive that FW will be ok for this fish, but after reading here im not so sure, I dont know what to think, as he seems VERY WELL educated on this matter. Even when i suggested that it looked like a tetradon Fluvillis he was adament that it wasn't. I will try to upload a picture.

I was goin to make it a brackish tank but now my confidence has been shattered and i dont know what to do. Just tried to get picture but the site said its too big, and i dont know how to reduce it.
Going by your pufferpedia its seems to be a ceylon, but the chap disagrees.

Help please

Dave

[Troender]

A search at fishbase.org gives me the answer that t. steindacherni is synonym with tetraodon biocellatus (Figure 8 puffer). The F8 is a brackish water fish, yes. The lower end of the brackish scale (or whatever I should call it in English ).

[Daystate]

Im pretty sure that it is not a fig 8, as is already 3" long. Looks like a ceylon puffer according to the internet sites.

Is it really that common for a decent LFS to wrongly name fish????

Dave

[Troender]

Is it really that common for a decent LFS to wrongly name fish????

Very! Even the decent ones, yes. Most of my puffers I've bought at decent LFSs, and at least 2 of them has been sold under the wrong name. I don't think it's the shop itself that is the problem. The problem starts already at the suppliers. I see that a lot when buying corydoras. I really know the shops I order from really know their stuff, but they really get a lot of strange things from their suppliers, and with the wrong information about the fishes too. All the suppliers lists I've seen so far has sold GSPs as FW fish. It's no wonder the shops don't know they are wrong when passing the same information to their customers.

[Daystate]

Right, Il just have to trust my instincts then, looks like a ceylon must be a ceylon!!!!

What SG would you reccomend that i should keep him in????

Thanks
dave

[Troender]

I have no experience with that puffer myself. I thought it was supposed to have the same as the F8, but the PufferPedia says high end brackish to fully marine. I think you'll have to wait until someone with some Ceylon-experience comes around in here, to get a certain answer to this

[Nusquam]

Ceylons need about 60gal each as they get to about 8" without tail when fully grown.
When young, you can keep them in light brackish, but should increase their salinity as they become bigger, eventually getting to high end brackish or full marine (whichever is up to you, depending on what you think is best for your situation).

You can also check out the pufferpedia for the profile on T. fluviatilis for more info.

[Daystate]

Thanks all, I just found a really informative thread on another site by neale monks describing ceylon puffers needs, etc, so im feeling better about what to do now.



Dave

[Hilly]

If you can post a pic that will help you know for definite. In the wild F8's are freshwater but dont do as well in FW in an aquarium where low end brackish helps them.

[Pufferpunk]

As I mentioned in your other thread, go by the GSP article info, in our Library.

[manutius]

this is interesting , I know the manager of the marine section at Amwell Aquatics, maybe I can get some info for you?

[Corvus]

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... a&start=15

I've described here where the name steindachneri comes from. If the manager of this store still uses this very old name, he cannot be up to date re puffers, so I'd consider his information possibly inaccurate.

[Daystate]

Yeah that would be great manitus. which amwell's, soho, or epping?
He is adament that its t.Steindachneri, but all of the evidence ive been looking at suggests t.Fluvillias, or however you spell it!!
Just dont want to harm fish as he says its a FW fish and does not need salt to thrive!!!!

Info would be appreciated

Thanks
Dave

[manutius]

its the epping one, I wasn't aware that there were more than one Still want me to find out for you?

[Daystate]

yeah that would be good. I bought the labelled 'Topaz' puffer from that store.