The Puffer Forum

Umbrella wrote:So frustrating! I quit.

It is frustrating. Like with the target puffers. Some of them are very difficult to tell from each other. I have two puffers I still haven't a certain ID on. They were bought as leiurus and cochinchinensis, but may both be cochinchinensis or turgidus. That's the life of IDing puffers. Some species we don't even know for sure are different species, like c, travancoricus and c. imitator. It has been some really fresh and almost heated discussions in here, when people ask for puffers to ID. But nothing like a fresh discussion. That way we all will learn more, as people point out what they know is certain for each species.

Permission to quit not accepted

I've looked at dozens of photo's now, I'm 100% its the female salivator. Thanks everyone

Well thanks guys. After looking at the female Lorteti vs. the Salivator .. I have to say they appear to be two totally different fish. They actually don't look the same at all. If one were 'glancing' at the two, then of course they appear similar. However, a nice little good look clearly distinguished the two for me.

I look at the detail of each fish I have. Now you try to keep track of who is who and all that jazz when you have 48 puffers. Well...I can ! Because I take the time to learn each puff's attitude and look at their patterns ( all are different ). I can tell who each and every one is at just a quick glance. I can also remember in which order they were purchased. The hardest 4 for me to tell apart .. you would think might be all those DP's lol, but nope they can be quite unique. I have trouble telling the Silus' apart. Originally I identified them as Modestus but that was because i had no idea Silus even existed haha. Looking again, they are clearly not Modestus.

BUT... I still think we need to FINISH the Pedia. I don't mind helping out if needed. I will do whatever it takes. I think we just need ... LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of pictures/videos. In addition to what we already have going. And by 'We' I mean 'You' as in .. TPF. But I guess ultimately it is up to.. Pufferpunk ?

Went back to the lfs today to see if they had any more salivators and they had some males, got one! So im going to try them together if not i have another tank available. Has anyone tried keeping a pair? Do the males get nasty towards the females? I'll post a pic as soon as i can

Umbrella wrote: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.

Dekkers has drawings of T. sabahensis, also statistics on their dots and bars on tails etc., and the Aqualog book has some tiny possible sabahensis, too on page 64. They are similar to GSP and the species T. kretamensis is another similar one.

Don't quit,but don't limit yourself to the internet. Lots of information is available in books and scientific papers. University libraries are the places to go to. The internet has just a very small portion of what is known, and since there is mostly no peer review and everyone basically writes what he thinks in the internet without scientific procedures and data, a lot of information found there is unreliable and based on speculation.

The pufferpedia has the puffer species most important for aquarium hobbyists. There are no less than 185 puffer species known!

Sorry for being OT.

Re the salivator: they are very aggressive and may kill each other. Provide lots of plants and be aware to divide if necessary. Bad news is most missing fishes disappear over night.

benp wrote:Has anyone tried keeping a pair? Do the males get nasty towards the females?

They can definitely get nasty towards the females. My own Jack the Ripper got his name because he killed his own wife. But it is doable with some specimens. Taly, here at TPF, has a pair of salivators that is doing very fine. So I guess it's like with most puffers: there are big differences between the specimens. But generally, I wouldn't recommend keeping a salivator pair. The males are very often aggressive towards their females, and you risk losing your female. At least be very prepared for having to move one of them.

benp wrote:Went back to the lfs today to see if they had any more salivators and they had some males, got one! So im going to try them together if not i have another tank available. Has anyone tried keeping a pair? Do the males get nasty towards the females? I'll post a pic as soon as i can

Peace lasted for about a week then he systematically destroyed her over night, removing 1 pectoral fin the entire tail and took a chunk out of her side. I was too late with a tank divider and ended up putting her out of her misery. Just my experience but others have had the same as well, like Troender said Taly has had success she is one of the lucky few. You could get lucky but the odds are unfortunately stacked against you.

So it doesn't sound to promising, i'm going to give it a go because i'd love to keep a pair but i'm prepared to seperate if needs be. They've been together for 3 days now and they seem fine, absolutely no aggression as far as i can tell,but as you've all said they can be unpredictable. At one point they were both fanning their tails, I hope this was courtship and not in anger! There's plenty of hiding places so im hoping she can get out of his way if she needs to. I'll just have to keep a really close eye on them and hope i dont wake one morning to find her in trouble or worse.
Thanks for all your help everyone.

If aggression breaks out you will know. he will be relentless, no matter where she hides he will persistently chase, wear her down and then attack repeatedly. I always took the fanning of the tail as the female resisting advances which I think is part of the problem.