The Puffer Forum

should i get a female?

If you can and have a big enough tank. Check out the pics on http://www.pufferlist.com to see what they look like. And keep in mind that irrubesco have both red eyes and red tails, and lorteti have just the red eyes. The lorteti are much more aggressive, too.

puffster wrote:are those spots really bite marks??? damn!!! poor litle guy he does get attacked quite often though,i think i'll remove him and bring him back to my lfs.the 2 first pics are the same puff and the 2 other are the other guy,wich one is female and wich one is male?Or are they both males?

Both are male C. irrubesco.
How big is the tank?
I once tried to keep two males in a 42 gallon but had to rescue the submissive one from a certain death.

IME irrubesco's are waspish creatures (especially the males).
The "gentleness" is pure myth...

They are best kept in pairs.

this is what he looks like today:


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I removed the other one and added salt to the aquarium to help with the wounds,needless to say he won't eat or swim,he just stays put .

That's a skin illness, rather than a bite mark problem I think. I would dip for 20mins in full strength seawater. I have had this problem no less than 3 times with my irrubesco, and the salt dip is the only thing that has proved to be successful for me.

i agree w/Wayland it a male C. irrubesco, and those are defintly puffer bites! i have two irrubesco's my self that are male. I thought they were female lorriea's or how ever you spell it, but i was wrong. they do bite each other but the have thier own homes, one a cave, one a nubius plant. now i just need to get my hands on a couple females to cout. they do breed in captivity, and thive in planted aquariums. best of luck w/him, those guys are my favorite puffers next to the lorietie's. rt

Definatly bite marks. Fella, dipping a FW fish into a straight SW bath can put a fish in shock, not really good practice.

do you guys think he'll survive?

Yes I think so. Is he showing any signs of illness?

Compare the dorsal fin in the 2 pictures. Unless the fish is in a tank with other fish, the dorsal fin is deteriorating.

With an aggressive parasite or infection a SW bath can be the only remedy, and it has worked for my puffers.

Parasites usually latch onto the fish and are pretty visible unless internal. Bacterial infections will cause wasteing of flesh and fins. Even if it were a bacterial infection melafix would do the job, or parasitic pimafix would help.

In those two pictures if you havn't noticed how many bites there are on the body, that basically would support the idea of nipped fins from being in an over crowded tank. Nipped fins that get a bacterial infection can result in fin rot which can be treated with melafix.

I think a stronger anti-biotic is in order if it truly is a skin infection. They just look like bites to me.
Puffster, does it look like an infection? It's hard to tell from pics.

He's doing alot better,for 2 days he didn't eat cause he was in bad shape,today he's alot more active and as soon as i put food in the aquarium he swam up to eat right away,his fins are growing back and those bite marks are going away.

Woland wrote:

puffster wrote:are those spots really bite marks??? damn!!! poor litle guy he does get attacked quite often though,i think i'll remove him and bring him back to my lfs.the 2 first pics are the same puff and the 2 other are the other guy,wich one is female and wich one is male?Or are they both males?

Both are male C. irrubesco.
How big is the tank?
I once tried to keep two males in a 42 gallon but had to rescue the submissive one from a certain death.



IME irrubesco's are waspish creatures (especially the males).
The "gentleness" is pure myth...

Agree completely with Woland. Don't be fooled by a puffer which is very skittish to start with and hides away most of the day. At night they come hunting and will attack anything in their site , no matter what the size.