Salivators? Zebra's Any Info!?

[benp]

I got a what i know realise to be a Salivator / Zebra / Striped Red eye from my LFS at the weekend, it was labelled as a Zebra, I had been reading up on South Americans and planned to get on of these which also seem to be referred to as zebra's which confused me somewhat in the shop!
So now I have this little fella and i cant seem to find out a lot about him ( actually i think a her), does anyone have one? any info or tips? She seems happy enough, She's been constantly chasing her reflection for 2 days with an occasional rest in a plant, is this normal? I tried some bloodworm today but she didn't seem the least interested (maybe too soon after the move?), i was going to try a couple of snails tomoorow, is this right?
She has a small tear in her underside (anal?) fin which i think she must of got when they netted her at the shop, do they normally heel up ok?
I think it's a female by the markings ( dark and complicated stripes), in a 110 litre tank, fully cycled with a small plec and plenty of decoration.
I've kept a community tank before and help my friend with a joint project malawi tank but this is my first puffer so any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated.
I'm particularly unsure about how much to feed her, how many snails to put in the tank? I've read they should be about the size of her eye, but how many and how often?

[Jase]

do you have any pictures of it/her?
I have no experience in the salivator. sorry.

[Hilly]

Post a pic as the carinotetraodon females all look very similar apart from slight variations in base colour on a general visual inspection.

Salivator are very unfussy eaters. They will take Krill, Prawns, Mussel, Cockle, BLoodwors etc... all finely chopped small pieces that are manageablesize for them.

BIte marks and injuries tend to heal up no problem with good water quality and a bit of melafix.

[benp]

have put a picture in the gallery

[benp]

I got some snails today, how many should i be putting in at a times? My puffers about an inch and a half long

[Jay.B.]

definitely a female, and definitely a C.Salivator (from what I've seen on my web travels anyway), good looking specimen as well.
I'm so tempted to ditch the shrimp breeding project I've just started and get a couple of C.Irrubesco that are in my LFS

[Hilly]

It does look like a female salivator.

[Troender]

Yes, it's a girlie And it's a c. salivator.

[zadrian]

Where u got it ? which country....any more ?

They can be very fierce....mine bit a 5" Ceylon (temp housing for 1hr to change sand).....
He bit and hung on the the poor Ceylon even after he flew out of the water and jumped across the 2ft tank in mid air...imagine striped michael jordon 3" dunking a puffed up 5" Undertaker

[benp]

im in the uk, i got it in a place called wildwoods in enfield, just outside london, i think they have a website, they had about 8 in, males and females

[Umbrella]

Are you guys sure ? I don't doubt your ability to identify them at all.... it just... it doesn't look Salivator to me. It looks like a Lorteti. Salivators have vertical stripes right ? As in... like a Zebra. This dude has none of that going on. Not even close to looking Zebra, unless the dude who identified them first was a tard and named it after only the males.. which is totally possible. Maybe I am just crazy or not informed because I have not had the pleasure of observing any of those species. Nor do I own any. I take your word for it cause you guys have been here a long time. Way longer than me for sure.

However I would VERY much like to see the Pufferpedia COMPLETED. YA... like we are missing mad puffs. No Lorteti ? No Leiurus ? No Silus? No Schoutedeni? Mmmhmmm, you see the problem here ? I'm sure there are more too. We can't be 'THE SOURCE' for people to come to and trust when we don't even have all of the puffs documented.

Example: What does a baby Sabahensis look like? No one knows! Haha, for all you know the baby Saba's could look EXACTLY like a GSP. And if you have never seen one, then you can't argue.

So frustrating! I quit.

[Jase]

you have to put in two weeks notice...

jk, no quiting!

[benp]

I'd love to know for sure! I can find pictures of females of both species which look identical! I guess somwhere along the line one species is being mis-identified? Or are they that closely related that the females are indistinguishable? There doesn't seem to be any definitive guide, this site is the best source of information i've found by far. I've just ordered the aqualog book on puffers, maybe that will shed some light. But after all, whatever it is, im sure i am going to enjoy looking after it and giving it a good life, and surely thats the most important thing right?

[Troender]

Salivators have vertical stripes right ?

Salivator males has vertical stripes. The female, on the other hand, is very different from the male. And she has horizontal stripes. Compare with this pic of a female in the PufferPedia.
Female
Here's a male, and he has got the zebra stripes.
I'll have a look if I can find a pic of my lorteti female, so you can have something to compare with.

[Troender]

Here you have a (bad) pic of a female lorteti:

If you compare that with the female salivator, you see that the lorteti doesn't have the same kind of horizontal stripes as the salivator.

BTW, salivator males can be pretty aggressive against their females. My male killed his wife (before I bought him). He seems very timid, but I didn't give him the name Jack the Ripper, just because he looks like one.