GSP With Irregular Spots?

[FishFan]

Until I found my guy, I'd only seen very small GSP's around 1-1.5", and they and all have perfectly round spots. My guy is about 5" long and does not have round spots. Is this a typical spot pattern for a larger GSP? These are the best photos I could get from the top, where the pattern is the most irregular.

Mooncheese_top.jpg

Mooncheese_top2.jpg

[Pufferpunk]

Looks like a Sabahensis to me:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... abahensis/

[my name is mike]

nice looking fish !

[yunachin]

He is quite beautiful.

[Corvus]

If you have the aqualog pufer book have a look at page 61, there's a larger gsp with perfectly round spots, I've seen large ones with round spots, too. In contrast, on page 64 are juveniles with irregular spots similar to your puffer. They have been named "T. cf. sabahensis". The "cf" means "confer"="compare" and shows there is some uncertainity with regard to the ID (It's the scientific way of saying: "we are not sure, further studies are needed").

Will remain a task for a scientist to clarify if there are different GSPs and if sabahensis and kretamensis are distinct species, and if so how they reliably can be told apart. It is well possible that those we use to call GSP or sabahensis represent a number of species or just one with regional variations. Especially genetic studies could shed some light on these puffers.

[FishFan]

Looks like a Sabahensis to me:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... abahensis/

Yay! I'm not crazy! I knew something about his spots was nqr. Everyone kept telling me that it was just a different pattern or that that's just what mature GSP's look like. His pattern looks a lot like Hilly's fish's, even down to the "bullseye" spots.

He is quite beautiful.

nice looking fish !

Thank you. We almost didn't see him all alone in a tank right next to a tank full of adorable baby GSP's, but when we saw him, we knew he was the one that would go home with us.

[FishFan]

If you have the aqualog pufer book have a look at page 61, there's a larger gsp with perfectly round spots, I've seen large ones with round spots, too. In contrast, on page 64 are juveniles with irregular spots similar to your puffer. They have been named "T. cf. sabahensis". The "cf" means "confer"="compare" and shows there is some uncertainity with regard to the ID (It's the scientific way of saying: "we are not sure, further studies are needed").

Will remain a task for a scientist to clarify if there are different GSPs and if sabahensis and kretamensis are distinct species, and if so how they reliably can be told apart. It is well possible that those we use to call GSP or sabahensis represent a number of species or just one with regional variations. Especially genetic studies could shed some light on these puffers.

Thank you for the book recommendation. I'll have to check it out. It is fascinating what genetic studies are turning up these days. We've been into orchids for over 30 years, and it has been interesting to see plants once thought of as species turn out to be natural hybrids or subvarieties, etc. From my limited internet research, it seems that there are some behavioral and physical size differences between the GSP and T. sabahensis. It'll be interesting to see what the final determination on the topic is.

[manutius]

Once again Corvus you are spot on, well done

Lovely looking puffer what ever it turns out to be

[Hilly]

Sabahensis, what you currently got him in fresh or brackish.

[FishFan]

Sabahensis, what you currently got him in fresh or brackish.

Sorry for the delay; just got back from Christmas holiday. He's currently in brackish (.25%, about 2.5 tsp/ gallon). His tank water from the lfs was .24% when I tested the water in his bag. I need to learn how to use sg rather than %, as that seems to be a better method of measurement. We'd like to try to get him to fw, as his salt content is very low, and he's the lone resident in our only brackish tank. What salt content do you keep your guy at?

I thought goldfish were friendly, but this is the neatest fish I've ever had! He even seems to like being stroked along his back. I'll just have to remember not to stick my fingers in for "kisses" like I do with the goldfish.

[Pufferpunk]

Check out his profile in our Pufferpedia. New article on them coming to our Library soon.

[Hilly]

Sabahensis, what you currently got him in fresh or brackish.

Sorry for the delay; just got back from Christmas holiday. He's currently in brackish (.25%, about 2.5 tsp/ gallon). His tank water from the lfs was .24% when I tested the water in his bag. I need to learn how to use sg rather than %, as that seems to be a better method of measurement. We'd like to try to get him to fw, as his salt content is very low, and he's the lone resident in our only brackish tank. What salt content do you keep your guy at?

I thought goldfish were friendly, but this is the neatest fish I've ever had! He even seems to like being stroked along his back. I'll just have to remember not to stick my fingers in for "kisses" like I do with the goldfish.

Mine is at a low brackish level of 1.004 It's been higher but hes been fine at this level for a long time now, owned him for almost a year now and still going strong.