The Puffer Forum

well, correct me if I'm wrong but i think i read in here somewhere that the Ceylon can be a tank mate for a gsp?

saffib has a Ceylon that he recently rescued with his GSP Mickey.

Either search saffib's posts or Ceylon puffer war and peace; also some good pics at "Ceylon + Mickey".

good deal, i will check it out!

ok, hold up a min, i took one look at the picks in his thread and the puffer i bought which they called an avocado (which pufferpunk is also describing as a ceylon) looks nothing like the ones in saffib"s thread!
the ones i have start out on the top with almost a lime green color that fades to silver then to white on the belly. they don't use their side fins as much like a gsp or f8 and instead have larger upper and lower fins that flutter the same way as a trigger fish does.
looks like i need to do some investagation into these guys unless someone else has an idea what they are!

That description sounds like one of the Auriglobus species. I think A. modestus is the most frequently seen, and several members here have them. Is your puffer somewhat laterally compressed (taller than they are broad)? Most Auriglobus are more of less. They are FW puffs.

...also commonly called avacado. Not a puffer that plays well w/others!

For once, PP has definiely done an understatement!

That genus schools when young and is solitary as adults, and seem nasty out of proportion to their size. As is common with Fahakas, you wonder how they get along well enough to breed.

they do seem a little more aggresive than the other 2 puffers and are very active as well, constantly swimming around all over the tank!

If you value your other fish, I'd separate them to 2 other tanks. You might be able to get away with keeping them together for a while & see if they'll get along by growing up together. Also, it is a FW species.

btw, RTR, i think you hit the nail on the head, i done a search on Auriglobus modestus, aka golden or bronze puffer and mine look just like them, thanx for helping in my search!

well i may be in the wrong in trying this but i have got other fish that where said to never make it together work before by starting them out together so here is what i am going to attempt
1) leave my remaining gsp in the 55g along with the 2 scats and just keep a closer eye on water conditions and
2) clean out my 45g which has been used for feeder fish, move them to my 30g and cycle the 45g through one time and try the 2 golden freshwaters and the 1 f8 and go ahead and keep the salt at about 1.005 cause i think the golden puffers can take it since they are already in 1.004 for about the last 2 weeks, they seem to be doing fine so far!
and for the record all is well in the 20g since i changed the water again and checked the levels, i think that maybe the one gsp i had die on me may not have completely been due to the water but either way thanx to you guys i have my perimeters in good shape now for the remaining fish and will continue to do so once i get them all separated!

Please don't keep the modestus w/the F8. I had a huge massachere in my tank from them & it happened overnight! Get a 10g & set it up for the F8.

The modestus will get larger than the f-8, as well. I just recently saw some XL modestus - and they were quite large...much larger than any of my f-8's.

Also, modestus are FW fish - and will DO BEST in FW...acclimating them to BW may work well for YOU - but it is not in the best interest of the fish.

Also, keeping different species of puffer together is just asking for trouble...some can go together (like Ceylons and GSPs - but they do share the same water requirements)...but those puffers of FW and those of BW should not be mixed.

We will not know for sure until someone does the lab confimations, but GSPs and Caylons may be the the most closely related puffers that we keep. Similar closeness exists with the Carinodon irrubesco and C. lorteti.

I agree that the Auriglobus species should not be in BW. All FW puffers are second division fish and adaptable to water hardness and TDS and salinity, but that does not mean in any sense that we should fotce them into conditions that are not natural to them.

gotcha, would my 45g be big enough for 2 modestus? prolly not!