Puffer for 5' tank

[Puffer King]

they are quite rare , but they can be found ...upuntill a few months ago i actually had 2 of them but unfortunately lost them due to some kinda IP . Kesgrave tropicals of ipswich uk did have them in a little while ago .

[Pufferpunk]

I'd love to see some pics of those! How did you tell them apart from GSPs?

[Puffer King]

Heres a clip of one of my Tetraodon Schoutedeni's attacking my mud skipper ! .......the mud skippers fine BTW , but unfortunately i did lose both my spotted congos , still not 100% sure what killed them but looked to be some kinda internal parasite , strangely only they were affected .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH3X-VNULpA

[Puffer King]

they are simar to gsp's except they are only bright green on top and more brown , and they have small spikes on the belly and of course they are fw . Lovely puffers , absolutely gutted i haven't been able to replace them ...probably have to wait another 30 odd years !!

[Puffer King]

Unfortunately the only pics i have of them is when they had died .....maybe you could help me figure out what the cause was ??
They were both covered in these black rings , too big to be bite marks , i imagine it was some sort of nematode ??? not sure

[Pufferpunk]

Poor thing is all bit up!

[trekenk]

I agree with PP those are bite marks.

[Pufferpunk]

Also, T schoutedeni does not have a green head, only the GSP does.

[Puffer King]

ah bite marks right ....thats bizzarre , wonder who the culprit could of been , unless they were fighting each other .....never saw them fighting ......one did get a little bullied by a male dwarf puffer , but those marks are way to big to be caused by him .
Yes the colouring of Tetraodon schoutedeni are that they are a light brownish colour with the top of them bein bright green and they are covered in black dots , also what truly seperates them from the gsp is the spikes on the belly and most notably the body shape is more club like .
And there character is totally differnt to any gsp's i've ever seen , which i've seen hundreds of over the years .

[Puffer King]

oh and one other thing you'll notice with the spotted congos (if you,ve ever been as fortunate as me to come across them) , which makes them easily distinguishable from any similar looking puffer , is how orangey red the eyes are , much much darker than that of a GSP.

[jus85411]

one did get a little bullied by a male dwarf puffer , but those marks are way to big to be caused by him

did you house those puffs together? IMO that puffer in the video looks like a GSP, the bright green patch on top of its head is pretty much a dead give away. that fish is just so infested with IP's and stressed, it looks different than normal GSP you would see on here

[Puffer King]

NO ITS NOT A GSP !!! ..haha im NOT asking you im telling you ! , the photos are actually of 2 different puffers , both are spotted congo's . They were purcased from different suppliers , about 6 weeks apart ....the first one was fine until the second one was introduced and they died within 36 hours of each other . GSP'S are more fluorescent'ishgreen all over . Spotted congos are only fluorescent'ish green on top (bit like a f8 ), on the rest of body they are a murky greenish brown .
I suspect the second puffer had the IP'S , as a friend bought a puffer from the same supplier at the same time and his died to . Both were quarantined for a month and treated to jungle fizz tabs , but the IP's must of survived it ...........strangely what ever type of IP'S it was they didn't infect any of the other fish in the tank.
Most interesting was that the black rings only showed up more visibly when they were dead , and im pretty sure i could see whatever it was moving under the surface of the skin . My guess it was some sort of nematode ie ringworm that was specific to these type of puffers .

[jus85411]

lol i know what you are saying. my reading comprehensions skills can be pretty good sometimes. i was just saying that to me (IMO= in my opinion, in my above post) that the featured puffer looks like a GSP, but just run down with IP's and stress, in other words very close to death. what identification procedures led you to know they were spotted congos? if it was just a sign at the local pet shop, i wouldnt trust it. i have seen a ceylon labeled as a F8. its just a little hard to think that a fish that hasnt been available in approx 30 years(as far as we know), made its way into 2 fish shops at almost the same time

[Puffer King]

im forever pointing out to fish shops , when they've mis-labeled stock , quite common i'd say . The spotted congo puffers i purchased were labelled on there shipment containers as coming from the congo , and i had them independently varified by a shop keeper friend of mine who has been in the business over 50 years and has kept puffers for many of these and knows a thing or two . I also spent hours researching the puffers and went through a process of elimination to triple check they weren't anything else . Unless they were a new discovery in the world of puffers which i very much doubt !
Due to the conflict in the democratic republic of congo over the years , there has been a lot of restrictions with fish coming through , needless to say when they do they are rare finds , I can't find any at all now , and the ones i did have were one offs and sold like hot cakes !
Heres a interestly link to distinguishing adult spotted congo's and the like , you can see how the unexperienced would get confused ....
http://puffernet.tripod.com/confusion.html

[Pufferpunk]

WORSE site on the net for IDing puffers!