ID my new puffer

[Troender]

Here's the puffer I picked up during my vacation. Can someone give me a certain ID on what it is. I have my therory, though
I've just released him into the tank, so the color is a bit different, I guess. But as most other targets I have, he seems like he has a specter of colors to change between.
He was sold as red eyed puffer, which doesn't give much meaning to me. I though it is mostly carinotetraodons that is called red eyed puffer? They had no scientific name for me.

He is a bit fat, so I will have to be careful with the feeding in the beginning. He has had a lot of other fishes to feed on in the pet shop. The other fishes were pretty tailless.












Isn't he beautiful?
In the shop, he was dark with almost silver colored spots. They were two, but the other one had larger spots. There was no doubt my puffer was the most beautiful!

[Hilly]

Tetraodon Abei. Nice looking Specimen!

[Pufferpunk]

My guess is T Turgidus. Yes, he's gorgeous! Very healthy too.

[Troender]

Tetraodon Abei. Nice looking Specimen!

Thought so

Yes, I love him/her already. And he wasn't expensive either And best of all: the shop knew that the puffer shouldn't be lifted out of the water... For other Abei-lovers in Norway. There's one left in the shop in Trondheim. I bought the best one, though

[Pufferpunk]

Not ever seeing an abei in person, Hilly would be a better judge of that.

[Troender]

I'm quite sure it's not a turgidus. I already have two puffers that maybe turgiduses, and this one is different, both in head shape and colors.

But, WOW, this is an active puffer! Usually it takes a few days before they settle in in their new home, but not this one! It took only a few minutes! Right now he is swimming around like he has been living there for years! And he has had a longer trip to his new home than any of the other puffers I have (9 hours driving). He/she also tries to get my attention. Only Hufflepuff is as social as this one

[Rocker]

From the pics given so far I would say it is not an abei. More like a turgidus.

[Pufferpunk]

That's what I said. The snout does look a bit longer than the turgidus. Look at the pics in the Pufferpedia.

[Belack1120]

Nice puffers I couldn't help but notice the inhaler in the back ground

[Myaj]

The reddish tip of the tail, the brown color and long nose make me think Abei as well.

And turgidus are certianly not active! Hehe.

[Troender]

Yes, he/she has a reddish tip of the tail. I also wondered what else made this puffer differ from the others, and I suddenly realized that his/her eyes are smaller.

Abei was my first thought when I saw him/her in the shop. But I've never seen any abei before, so I really couldn't be sure of this.

If turgidus is not active, I can rule out one of my suspected turgiduses Because that's the only other of my puffers that can compete with this puffer's activity level. But that one I think is mostly when he sees me: "feedmefeedmefeedmefeedme!!!"

BTW, my new puffer is active also when I'm not around. I have a clear view from my sofa, and can see him swimming around.

[Rocker]

That ain't no abei.There is no eye spot. The shape of the head is wrong as is the colouration.

[manutius]

My thought is T. Turgidis and a very nice one too. Congratulations on a lovely fish

[taly]

If that is an abei, my "abei" must be something else

[Troender]

Oh my! I seem to have stirred something here now

Taly, I've had a look at your abei pics, and that one looks a bit more like my two maybe-turgiduses, at least the size of his eye. Our two "abeis" can't be the same puffer.

And if my new puffer is a turgidus, the other two is not (ID-ed by you all here at TPF) - that's absolutely certain. They are too different to be the same, and I'm not talking about the color (which also is too different), but the shape of the head and snout, and the size of the eyes. The way the spots appear is also different, and the color is so strikingly different, so it can't be the surroundings or mood or whatever, that has affected their different colors. Looking at pics in the PufferPedia the body shape is most right for an abei (talking about my new puffer now). I see that that one has a broad range of different colors. But it seems like different people has different meanings of what's the characteristic of an abei compared to other targets, like the turgidus. Does anyone have a scientific writing of some kind about the differences of the target puffers? I think this might be the right way to find this out, once and for all. I know there's very little scientfic on these things, but does anyone have anything that can do? What do you base your knowledge of the different species on, except your own experience (not that I don't respect your experience But when you don't agree, who shall I listen to?).

Maybe this is the leiurus Tiger wasn't? This one has a long snout, at least more than 2 1/2 the size of it's eyes (which someone mentioned at that time).