The Puffer Forum

Good Evening everyone!

I have a question for anybody who has gotten GSP's from different sources. I bought one GSP (Zephyr) locally, then couldn't find any more for a month or so, so I drove about 2 hours away. I figured that they probably all were from the same source anyways. I bought two more and have had them in the same tank as Zephyr for about 8 months now. The weird thing is that the last two I bought haven't really changed much in size where Zephyr now must be 5-6 times the size of the other two. They were all the same size when I got them. Granted Zephyr has a HUGE appetite, the other ones do seem to eat a lot as well, but they just don't grow.

Has anyone seen this before and is there any reason? (maybe the other two are males??, or some sort of miniature variety??)

Do you have any photos of them, just to verify species?

If they were stunted when young, it does lifelong damage and they may never grow to full size. This is why we are so adamant about encouraging people to get their puffers out of too small of tanks as early as possible. Not saying you stunted them, but who knows what happened to them at the store, etc...

Can you post pics of both of them?

I have seen several different green spotted puffers and I really think that there is a dwarf species of them. Unless the growth ratio is different per fish...this is not including the ones that have suffered stunting problems from tanks too small or other circumstances...but green spotted puffers under perfect or near perfect conditions (great diet, constant water changes,etc). I always wanted to research it....perhaps after the stork comes I will get into it.

I too believe GSP may in fact be 2-3 species. Pics would truly help.

I've wondered that too. I've had Hootey nearly a year and he has grown very little.
Hootey came from the place that is always slashing prices and fish tanks though...

I got my 4 GSP's from the same tank at the lfs. 3 of them havent grown much since I got them a few months ago. One of them has grown at least half an inch since i got them. They all eat about the same amount of food but one of them seems to be growing whilst the others arent!

Myaj wrote:Do you have any photos of them, just to verify species?

If they were stunted when young, it does lifelong damage and they may never grow to full size. This is why we are so adamant about encouraging people to get their puffers out of too small of tanks as early as possible. Not saying you stunted them, but who knows what happened to them at the store, etc...

I'll try to get some pics up, but really they are almost identical to Zephyr, but smaller.

I'm pretty sure I didn't stunt them in any way, but as you said I have no idea if something else before I got them did. They did have about 30 of them in a 20-30 gal tank at the aquarium store.

yunachin wrote:I have seen several different green spotted puffers and I really think that there is a dwarf species of them. Unless the growth ratio is different per fish...this is not including the ones that have suffered stunting problems from tanks too small or other circumstances...but green spotted puffers under perfect or near perfect conditions (great diet, constant water changes,etc). I always wanted to research it....perhaps after the stork comes I will get into it.

....interesting, that might be the answer to my questions then.

Zephyr does have an extreme appetite.....he will eat anything that fits in his mouth. When I feed them krill, he will swallow the pieces whole, where the other two smaller puffers kinda chew it up and spit a bit out, then try to eat it again. But that still shouldn't account for such a large difference in size.

indie wrote:I got my 4 GSP's from the same tank at the lfs. 3 of them havent grown much since I got them a few months ago. One of them has grown at least half an inch since i got them. They all eat about the same amount of food but one of them seems to be growing whilst the others arent!

I wonder if this is the way to truly sex puffers. Maybe the females grow large quickly when the males don't. Of course you can only really sex the puffers in relation to puffers the exact same age and with the same food source and other environmental factors.

studmaster wrote: I wonder if this is the way to truly sex puffers. Maybe the females grow large quickly when the males don't. ...

Possible, but why should the females be larger, not the males?

Corvus wrote:

studmaster wrote: I wonder if this is the way to truly sex puffers. Maybe the females grow large quickly when the males don't. ...

Possible, but why should the females be larger, not the males?

I find in the fish world, a lot of time the female is larger than the male.....but other than that its a guess with a 50% change of being right.

There are many examples in the fish world where the males are larger e.g. many morays (except ribbon eels), also many families of coral fishes living in small groups where the strongest fish becomes the male and rest stays female until the male is eaten.

With regard to puffers think about Carinotetraodons like irrubesco, lorteti or salivator, where the males are much bigger. Or tobies, which generally also have stronger males.

I don't think it can be determined if GSP males or females are larger until you have eggs or a proper dissection.

Dang it, we need to find a labratory somewhere that has a super small ultrasound and rent it for a day or two... ROFL

Corvus wrote:Possible, but why should the females be larger, not the males?

Well, the female may mature at a faster rate than the male and have an increased growth rate because of that? The faster the females reach sexual maturity the better for the species...one mature male can fertilize a bunch of mature females.