The Puffer Forum

I definitely know how you feel ... my salivator was one of my favourites, until his death the other day. I was gutted. I am trying to source another one, but it's not going to be easy I suspect. And I don't know about in the US, but they are a bit on the expensive side over here.

i paid $80 for mine. twice. i had one that died on me two.

there was a local guy that worked for a lfs that bought 4 for himself personally and i got him to sell me the first one. he didnt seem too thrilled about letting go of the second one

I think very few people have even seen them in North America.

Well I paid 40 GBP for two, but as I mentioned previously, they aren't easy to find. I'd like to think I can replace the one that died, but I suspect it's going to take a while.

So I re did the tank, added an inch of sand, and a some mayaca, java fern, and some other plants given to me by a friend. I noticed a little rib protrude from the bottom of the puffer while I was feeding him, so this little guy is definitely a male. I honestly spent two hours trying to take pictures of him, finally enticed him with some snails to come out for some pictures!!

YAY!! you finally did it!! See you can take decent looking pics!

I'm not so sure it's a male from those pics, I think I can see some stripes, but the colouration on top doesn't look how my male looked. Hmmm.

The pics can be slightly misleading but going on general size and shape of head and I can see the zebra stripes under the eye, I think its a male.

that is a great looking puff.

Hilly wrote:The pics can be slightly misleading but going on general size and shape of head and I can see the zebra stripes under the eye, I think its a male.

Yeah I agree with you on the stripes, but the top of the body looks very different to how my salivator looked. Do the females show stripes at all? I've never owned a female, only had the 2 males.

The females pretty much look like an irrubesco female just with a different base colour. Some vids on my youtube page if you havent seen them.

Thanks Andy, but I've got my Aqualog book. I suppose I just need to hone my ability to differentiate between the species. I'm learning, slowly but surely.

Puffergirl- I thought he was a female too based on the top coloration, and also the vertical stripes. But I definitely notice a rib protrude from the bottom of him when he feels threatened.

The tank looks a lot better now, those pictures are a couple days old, all the plants are starting to fill up the tank, yay!

If you can get some better full side profile shots post them up for a definitive answer.