The Puffer Forum

Hi Fellow Puffer Lovers -- I found an incredible deal today at my local LFS. This little puffer was all alone in a tank without any labeling. I was immediately taken with him. The bloke at the LFS didn't know what he was. I asked right off could I buy him, and the bloke said yes. He charged me £6 !!!

Now, I believe I have an Abei puffer. The bloke thought it was a Fang's puffer, but I own 2 Fang's and it doesn't look anything like mine. I still say it's an Abei, which if it is, it's the cheapest one ever! Funny thing is, this puffer has been on my wish list for ages, and I just today decided that I was going to give up as it wasn't looking like I'd be getting one any time soon. There was a bloke on here that was selling his for £80 at least, but he was down the south of England, so too far for me to go.

Anyway, I took some photos, although they aren't the best. Sorry but it was very hard for me to get the right angle and I was anxious to get him into the tank and once he's in there, due to it being so close to the floor, it's hard to get a photo. I wanted to see if the rest of you agree with me in guessing that this is an Abei. From all the research I've done, I still think it is.

What a happy camper I am today!!!

Congrats you can tick the Abei off your list of puffers you wanted.

It's so cute! Only one to go, right?

Well, it's shaped like one... but with those pics, it's really hard to tell. Maybe you can get some better ones, once it's settled in it's new tank & colored up. Congrats on the new fella!

Yeah I know they are crap pictures, I tried and tried to get better ones, but that camera is not very good for close-ups. Before I definitely jumped to the conclusion that it was an Abei, we looked at photos that people posted on here of their Abei's and we matched eye colour, spots on belly, tail colour, target spots on body, and it all seems to match up with an Abei, so that's where we ended up. I'm sure it's not a Fang's puffer. Even if it turned out he's not an Abei, which I believe he is, he's still a very beautful puffer and I don't own any like him, so I'm still quite happy with my purchase, especially at that price!

I agree with Hilly and PP, but better pictures are needed for a definite ID.

Important characters are: length of snout in relation to eyes? Can it turn dark and the spots become silvery white to bright orange? Orange to red spots teh rest of the time?

Actually funny you should say that because he was darker this morning and the spots were silvery. I was hoping he wasn't ill. Now that I think I have an Abei, I'm a bit paranoid and hope it doesn't get sick, as I'd hate to lose it now that I have one.
What should I be looking for in length of snout?

If the snout is longer than about 2times the eye diameter it's among the "long snouted" species of the target group. Monotrete abei is in this group.

I'm not sure about the snout theory, but I can tell you that mine looks just like all the photos I've seen of Abeis on here. Like I said, we matched up different parts of the body from pictures of known Abeis and they all seem to match.
And if it's not an Abei, then I'd like to know what it would be as I have the other members of the "target" group and it's not any of them.
Call it wishful thinking, but I'm just going to accept that it is an Abei.

Well, your pics definitely look like an abei. I'd stick with that for now.

Actually I'm certain that's what he is. I've been checking all the Abei photos I can find online and he looks exactly like them. So as far as I'm concerned, I got myself an Abei!