Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:40 am
I believe most measurements like that are w/o tails.
RTR then noted that only standard and total length are used in the hobby.There are many ways to measure fish length. Pet fish should probably be measured in "total length" - a biologist would express this as in "78mm TL", for example. Total length is a straight line from the most anterior projecting part of the head to the tip of the tail .
Fish that both wear away the tips of their tails and have forked tails are measured in "fork length" or FL from the most anterior part of the head to the fork.
Museum specimens are measured by ichthyologists in "standard length" SL - the distance from the most anterior portion of the head to the end of the vertebral column or base of the caudal fin rays.
All of these are straight line measurements - not taken over the curve of the body.
There are hundreds of more unusual ways of measuring fish. The best reference I know for explaining them is the one I learned from: Fishes of the Great Lakes Region by Hubbs and Lagler, numerous printings since 1947, mine is from 1964.
I have always leaned toward use of standard length when referring to the size of my fish. Tails can be damaged, deformed, unusually long or stunted and including them in the measurement can be misleading IMHO. I believe the measurements posts on TPL are all standard length.
Since most puffers are wild caught, sizes of puffers obtained from LFS can vary greatly from juvenile to full adult. Start with snails that are about the size of the puffer's eye or smaller. Larger snails can be crushed before feeding them to the puffer.