The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone!

I'm new on this forum and I want to tell you that if my English is not so good, it's because I'm living in Québec and I don't have to write in English often... So, I'm sorry for any mistakes...

The puffers are my favorites fish! I already have a male Carinotetraodon irrubesco who's living in a 20 gallon with 4 otocinclus and 4 guppys. Since yesterday, I have 2 new puffers but I'm not sure what they are... I need your help! Where I got them, they were sold as Carinotetraodon somphongsi. All I found on the Internet is that it's another name for the lorteti specie... I don't know what to think so I'm asking you: What's a Carinotetraodon somphongsi? Actually, they are 1cm long...

Also, I'm preparing an hexagonal 30 gallon tank to have Colomesus asellus (maybe three???) and I want to be sure that this tank is good for them, because it's much higher than large... I'm thinking to keep also Carinotetraodon travancorius with them...

Thank you for your help and I'm glad I found this site!

Be careful with those guppies tails so that they don't get nipped. I'm not sure how aggressive irrubescos are. Where are you planning on keeping the new fish? In their own tank? And I think it is another name for a lorteti, yes so they are very aggressive. Really tanks with larger footprints are better than tall ones. In a 30 gal you would get 2 SAPs. If you want DPs with them you could have one SAP and 3 DPs. But like I say, they prefer a longer tank to a high one.

Can you post a picture of your new puffers? I agtee about the guppies getting badly nipped.

hi,
that is right: c. somphongsi is just another synonym for c. lorteti.
martin

Thanks you!!!

For the guppys, I put them in the tank when they were alevins and since they are growing up very well, and my irrubesco doesn't care about them. He lets them swim around him, and even eat his food next to him. I never saw him chase them or bite them. So, for the moment, I will let them in the tank.

For my new ones, I put them in a 3 gallon tank for the moment. But if they are lorteti (2 females), I have to think to get a larger one I guess...

I'm not use to your abreviations so SAP is for the asellus and DP is for the travancorius?

Oh yeah sorry SAP is South American Puffer (asellus) and DP is Dwarf Puffer (travancorius). Yep definitely a larger tank. I would say something between 30 and 40 gals but I can't say for sure, that's just an estimate, but someone on here will know.

Minnimum of 20g for a pair.

The lortetis seem to be an easily confused species. The store I work at got some of these in last week (I kept two females) and they were listed under *brackish fish* (they are 100% freshwater!) as "Red Belly Puffers". They are very sexually dimorphic though- so it should be easy for you to tell, even at a young age (mine are about the same size as yours). The males have a shiny blue tail and a bright red belly, which the females lack.

These guys are evil little buggers. My current full grown male (who lives separately from the females) has eaten the eyeballs out of every other fish he lived with, except for two other female lorteti's which he killed. The females seem just as aggressive. I'd get a 20L or 29 and keep it *heavily* planted or decorated. Have fun, I absolutely love my guys!!

hi,
if the males have shiny red stomaches it could also be c. borneensis. this two species get mixed up very often. best post pictures here to go sure!
martin

The males don't have the red belly and the blue tail when they are small. They look very much alike an irrubesco at that stage, except that the tail isn't red. The red belly and the blue tail will develop when they grow. At least it did on my lorteti male. I got a pleasant surprise there, as I wasn't prepared for the beauty it would grow into.

Thanks for your help!

I don't know if I'll keep them... I really enjoy the puffers but I don't have a tank for them and I cannot have a new one for a while...

As soon as they are too big, I will find a good person to taking care of them... Or maybe, at that moment, I will have a new tank! I don't know how quick they grow...