What kind of puffer do I have?

[speaktree]

Hi there, its been a while since I've been here. I've been keeping figure 8 and GSP pufffers for about a year now, and recently spotted some dwarf puffers at the LFS. I decided to buy all 5 and things have been going great, they're all eating well and theres very little bickering going on. However, I'm having doubts as to whether one of them is actually a dwarf puffer! Its the second smallest of the bunch and looks exactly the same size-wise but its markings is completely different. Its mostly brown with golden lines running all over its body, almost like Arothron reticularis? I know this is probably the least likely candidate, but its the closest I could find to the markings of my puffer. The eye is the same colour as the other ones though, so it can't be Carinotetraodon salivator, anyone have any ideas?

I have attached a HORRIBLE photo, but I'm really struggling with the pics as I don't have a proper camera, and the little guy/gal is so small!

[bigfatfish]

DPs markings seem to vary hugely.

[PolishPuff]

DPs markings seem to vary hugely.

Is that a fish in that picture ?

[bigfatfish]

DPs markings seem to vary hugely.

Is that a fish in that picture ?

?Looks like a fish to me!

[Hilly]

It looks like one of the redeye puffers, Salivator have red eyes, look at them at the right angle and they have a lovely silvery blue. Cant tell what it is from that pic though.

[pufferpuggirl]

I suppose it's possible that it's a female of one of the redeye species ... but without a better photo it's really hard to tell which puffer that is. Can you try to get a better photo please?

[nmonks]

Could be anything. The odd markings don't remind me of any Carinotetraodon, and in fact suggests something a bit more exotic, like one of the Chelonodon spp for example. But without a proper photo, can't help.

Cheers, Neale

[speaktree]

Thanks for the replies

Here are two more pictures that are a little less blurry. The eyes are definitely not red, as my first guess was also one of the red eye types, they're black with a golden rim, sometimes from certain angles the black part can look green (much like a dog or cat's eyes) but definitely not red. If the pictures are still not sufficient I might take him out and put him in a small container in sunlight so I can get a good pic of him. I am also seriously starting to doubt that this might possibly be a DP, as its not only the patterns but also the colours that don't match. Where the DP is primarily yellow with black spots or stripes, this one also has a yellow belly, but the predominant colour is brown with silver/golden lines. The lines are actually reflective, although the camera seems to compensate for that.

I also wonder how he could have gotten mixed in with another species as I know that he came in the same shipment from the same supplier, where I guess they could have been mixed up, but that implies that puffers from completely different parts of the world got thrown into the same batch?

Thanks for the help so far

[PolishPuff]

Looks like a Dwarf Puffer to me

[pufferpuggirl]

I'd like a better photo .... the first one is too dark and the 2nd one isn't much brighter. I think if you want a positive ID we need to see him in better light.

[doraemon]

Looks like a Dwarf puffer to me too

[J-P]

I'm not going to go dwarf and with one of the target species. Being that you are from S Africa... no way is that a DP. I may be wrong, the that big DOT near the center on the 2nd photo seems like a give away.

[Pufferpunk]

Vote for DP here.

[doraemon]

I'm not going to go dwarf and with one of the target species. Being that you are from S Africa... no way is that a DP. I may be wrong, the that big DOT near the center on the 2nd photo seems like a give away.

He/she already has 4 other dps that it came with when he brought 5 but is just doubting this lil fella, like bigfatfish said dps colourings and markings vary and no 2 markings are the same, i had dps with a big spot blue spot towards the tail which is normal

[J-P]

ohhh ... I had no idea...

See you learn something every day here