The Puffer Forum

I'm looking for info on this fish. Are they similar to the other red eyed puffers?
Can they be kept in groups or with other fish?
Tank size?
Thanks

When it comes to care about c. lorteti, it's the same as c. irrubesco, with one exception: the temperament of the fish. C. lorteti is generally more aggessive than c. irrubesco. I would definitely recommend against keeping it with other fishes. They are bad at nipping fins, and probably would also kill if it gets the chance. It can sometimes be kept in pairs, but you need to be prepared to split them into different tanks if they get too aggressive. I've got a pair, and it seems like the aggression is increasing as they grow older, all though they've been aggressive all the time. A heavily planted tank is needed, both if you keep a pair, and also if you keep it single. C. lorteti is a semi active hunter, which means that it actively hunts for food (not waits for the food to pass it, like the lurkers do), but does not like to stay in open water anyway. It likes to hunt among plants and decor in the tank.

Let me add some comments passed on by Frank Schaefer over at Aqualog. He's noticed differences in aggression between populations. The ones regularly imported (to Germany at least) from Vietnam are comparatively peaceful, while those from Thailand were severe fin biters.

I haven't kept C. lorteti, so can't really confirm or criticise these comments, though normally I'd agree with Troender that C. lorteti is best kept singly. For the casual aquarist, C. irrubesco is simply a much easier fish to look after, being significantly more peaceful and tolerant of conspecifics.

Here in England, C. lorteti and C. irrubesco are routinely confused and often sold together in one batch of fish. So you need to be extra careful when shopping.

nmonks wrote:Here in England, C. lorteti and C. irrubesco are routinely confused and often sold together in one batch of fish. So you need to be extra careful when shopping.

To add a little to this: When I bought my lorteti pair, the male looked exactly like an irrubesco male, except for the tail not being red. But as it grew older, it transformed a lot, and looks nothing like an irrubesco now. The female, on the other hand, still looks very much like an irrubesco female. So if you buy a lorteti male, they are very often so young that it's difficult to see the difference (and as Corvus says, the shops don't know the difference for sure). The way to tell them apart, is to look at the tail of the male. If there's anything red in it, it's an irrubesco. If you want to see a lorteti male in its grown up colors, have a look at the POTM contest this month. They are stunningly beautiful, in my opinion.

I keep both lortetis and an irrubesco, so I've witnessed the difference in temperament. I must admit I like the lorteti best, but I tend to like the aggressive puffers the most. My irrubescos were pretty shy (I say "were", because I've lost my irrubesco male), and didn't show much aggression. My lortetis were a bit shy in the beginning, but now they show nothing of that anymore. They always come out to greet me (or rather beg for food), and they don't seem to be easily scared of anything. I really like the personality they have, as they are brave, social and pretty aggressive - just how I like my puffers. They are really interactive, which my irrubescos never was (my irrubesco female, who is still alive, can be gone for several weeks, withouth me seeing her. And as she lives in a 22 G tank, that is pretty amazing. But I never worry when I don't see her for a while. That's quite normal for her ).