The Puffer Forum

hi,
this is an intersting thing:
i have seen this species (at least i think it is the same one) very often in the red sea of együt, where it is very common in some parts.
the only species known from the red sea that look like this one are amblyrchynchotes honckennii an torquigener hypselogeneion (http://fishbase.de/Country/CountrySpeci ... 10&id=8307 take a look at my own pictures made in dahab: http://kugelfischforum.de/index.php?id= ... ureView]=0

as i have never seen fish of this species grwon bigger than maybe 10-12 cm i doubt that they are amblyrchynchotes and think that this is the species t. hypselogeneion. i even doubt that the specie a. honchennii even exist and i presume that this is one more of those puffer-misidentifications. i am of course not sure, which name scientificly should be given, but if there really exists a species, that is getting 30 cm big, then this is not the one!
therefore: no matter what people will tell you, what the scientific correct name your fish will have: i presume it will never grow bigger than about 10 cm!
it lives over sand and mud and also seeweed. it is usually found in big groups but also sometimes solitary. it feeds on small invertebrates that it blows constantly out of the sand. not reef-associated! needs lot of swimming place cause it does not seem to be territorial.
have fun with it! i would give nearly evrithing to own this fish!
martin

T. hypselogeneion has much less spines than A. honckennii. In addition the A. has lappets on the caudal peduncle, the T. has not. Dead specimens should be easy to tell apart by these characters.

I doubt this puffer is of the same species as the ones you photographed in the Red Sea. They show a lot of differences with regard to coloration e.g. the orange spots of the T. hypselogeneion and the vertical lines at the side of the head; and it lacks the clear single darker patch of A. honckenii in front of the pectorals. However, I believe it is possible they at some point will belong to the same genus. If they were the same species (which I do not think) it is likely the species name would still be honckenii, because it's the older name as far as I know.

I don't know how reliable the 30 cm (1 foot) maximum size are, though.

Hey guys

Here's another picture of him, doing what he loves to do....



Cheers
SA

http://zipcodezoo.com/Animals/A/Amblyrh ... _honkenii/

Not sure on the reliability of that site.

Read again.

This text is about the entire family, not just this species.

where can i get one of this guys

Whoops. I just skimmed through that article. Let me edit.

dmond31 wrote:where can i get one of this guys

I'm not too sure where you'd be able to get them commercially, I caught this one myself. It's a very nice fish though, it has a good temprament and is quite active.

It's a real beauty! Very, very nice puffer.

Wow...what a beautiful Puffer!

Gorgeous fish!

And if you ever happen to come across a blaasop beauty (http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/Summary/S ... p?id=23126) you should send it my way

That IS a beauty!

WOW that beauty is really nice looking... would love to have either one of them.