The Puffer Forum

So I went to this fish store and they had a whole bunch of puffers there I was so excited just to see them. They had a porc, saddled puffer, dog face puffer and two other ones. I decied that I liked the white spotted puffer so I bought him and brought him home, only to find out that he needs a tank of 180 gallons. But When I looked at the pictures he looked nothing like the puffers in the pictures so I looked up puffes and found one that looks just like him called a spotted puffer. It said he would only get 5 inches and needed a tank of 30 gallons so I feel better. He is a red color with white spots and on his head they are a light blue. He was in a tank with a trigger and a saddled puffer. So I asked how they got along and they said great. They ate together and slept together so I asked them to hold him for me and I would pick him up in a few weeks. I just wanted to know if this is the same puffer because if it is then I will have to take him back because the tank isn't big enough. I found the info on liveaquaria.com so if you want to see a picture of him look on that site at the spotted puffer. I know it was stupid of me to buy a puffer that I don't know about but I really don't know anything about marine puffers. They said they had both of those puffers in the tank together for a few weeks and they love each other and neither one of them had any scars or nipped fins and they were in with a trigger and the tank was only 20 gallons. I just want to know if this puffer is going to get too big for the tank, if he is I would like to take him back the guy there said he wouldn't be to big and told me the same thing as the website and he seemed to know quite a lot about the puffers. He said he had been watching all the puffer tanks because he knows how puffers and triggers can get. He is very pretty and I would hate to get rif of him and I know that puffers don't be well together but all the info I have read about both puffers say they are peaceful and can be kept with other fish. I watched them for a while in the tank and I never saw any aggression for either puffer thanks for the help!

I have found Liveaquaria to have pretty good info. Do you have a link? Can you go back & take a pic?

Here is the link http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... pcatid=260 . I hope this helps he looks alot like and blue spot puffer but the picture on the link is the exact puffer I have. I hope it works since I don't want to copy and paste the photo since I don't want to steal it.

they call their spotted puffer a solandri, but i don't think it is, cause it doesn't have the dark spot on its back and the tail is different... not sure how much variance there are in this species though. here's TPF link:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Marine/C_Solandri/

He doesn't have any lines only spots and his tail is clear not red. I thought that was the same puffer too when I first saw him but he doesn't look quite like that he might be that puffer but he doesn't have lines yet, but that would make me feel better because that puffer only needs a 25 gallon.

but if it makes you feel better, I don't know of any canthigaster that needs that much room...

Oh good, like I said he was labeled as a white spotted puffer but he looks nothing like that (also called stars and stripes?) He has none of the colors that the white spotted puffer has on the puffer pedia. I really like him he is so beautiful and he seems really happy, hes eating and swimming around a lot he has his own little cave in the tank where he can hide but he likes being out and he is super fast thats why I couldn't get a picture of him to post here!

canthigaster jactator?

edit: I'm almost positive.
Canthigaster jactator (Jenkins 1901), Hawaiian Sharpnose Puffer. Hawaiian endemic. To three inches in length.

or Canthigaster punctatissima. take your pick, they are almost the same.

I'm looking at WWM in case you wondered.

First of all I want to say thank you for the help! I'm not sure I'm not good at the scientific names since none of the local fish stores use them and when I go in there and use them they look at me like I'm a crazy and then I tell them I do my research and then I think they just want to get rid of me because I say things like those fish don't look healthy or don't go together. Then before I buy any fish I ask for them to be fed and they act like I just commited murder right in front of them! Like oh my gosh I don't know how to feed fish but I work at the lfs! This guy that I dealt with yesterday was very nice and seemed to know a lot and there was two of them and they were both helpful. They had a really nice clown trigger in with a porc and the porc looked sick and I asked if the porc could be moved since when I walked up to the tank the trigger tried to kill me through the glass (and he was $129.99!) he told me that he would try and move the porc so that he could get some food and be happy, all though I never saw the trigger attack the porc, he looked skinny. The link that I have posted looks just like the puffer I have and it is just called a spotted puffer, but when I type that in to google I get all the puffers that have spots and the more I look at the puffers the more I think he isn't a puffer at all, except at that site liveaquaria. When the guy took him from the tank (not in a net yay!) He didn't puff and I haven't seen him puff at all which could mean that he isn't stressed out which is a good thing! I bought him some snails and he loved them and all the puffer/fish looked really healthy, no marks of any attack. I will have to look thanks for that!

Another thread that shows the advantages of using scientific nomenclature.

There are three very similar species:

Canthigaster jactator (only Hawaii)
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/sp ... e=jactator

and

Canthigaster janthinoptera (Africa to Marquesas)
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/sp ... thinoptera

and

Canthigaster punctatissimus (Eastern Pacific)
http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/sp ... ctatissima

These three are differentiated by small details.
The easiest way to know what your puffer is, is to ask where it is from.

He looks like this one Canthigaster jactator, Hawaiian Sharpnose Puffer. Thank you for the site! He is about 2 inches minus the tail so if he only gets 3 inches then he is not a baby like I thought but puts my mind at ease about putting him in my 55 gallon. Thanks!

I ruled out C. janthinoptera cause she said it had no stripes.
or maybe I'm making up excuses, so I feel like I accomplished an ID with out Corvus.

He looks like the Canthigaster jactator. Hee hee your right he has no stripes, not saying that he won't get them, I hope he doesn't he looks perfect the way he is!