Sexing Arothron reticularis

[BabyPuff]

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a nice Christmas.

Any way to tell the sex of my puff? It's 7 inches now, and was 4 inches four months ago. I'm not even sure how old that makes it?

Four questions:

1. How old do you think it is?
2. Is it possible to tell the sex?
3. When will it be sexually mature?
4. How old will it have to be before it can be sexed?

I couldn't find anything about sexing the puffer on the Internet, although I found some sites that suggest they mature around 1 year.

BTW, The Puffer List mentions two other Arothron species as having no sexual dimorphism. Could be the same with my puff.

Good luck! Thanks for your time, as always.

[LinearChaos]

There are no sexual dimorphic characteristics with this species...only the puffers know which sex they are.

This species has not been bred in captivity so as of yet there is no definitive, documented age for sexual maturity.

I would guess your puff is probably close to the 2 year mark...he's gorgeous by the way, looks very healthy!

[BabyPuff]

Hey LC, thanks for your reply.

There are no sexual dimorphic characteristics with this species...only the puffers know which sex they are.

I only wish they could talk! LOL

This species has not been bred in captivity so as of yet there is no definitive, documented age for sexual maturity.

Just give it some time, I guess... More and more fish are being bred in captivity each month. I love to go to Liveaquaria.com and watch their list of tank-bred and tank-raised fish grow.

I would guess your puff is probably close to the 2 year mark...he's gorgeous by the way, looks very healthy!

Could be, although my wife and I think 1 year max. It may have been 3-3 1/2 inches long when we got it. It eats about 10-14 krill a day now and has just grown like crazy. I know, we spoil Baby. It has a 150 gal tank practically to itself (one small Panther Grouper) after the temp fluctuation and the Ich attack 2 months ago.

We almost lost Baby (puffer), too. It had a severe bacterial infection and almost stopped breathing. I figured I had nothing to loose, so I emptied an entire bottle of garlic into the tank. Low and behold, the next day Baby and Spot (grouper) were better and by the next day Baby's eyes were clear again.

I don't recommend anyone do what I did with the garlic! I have to admit that I was very sad and frustrated. I know garlic has some antibiotic properties, but both fish could have just recovered on their own.

Ok, I'm rambling. Thanks for your opinion and for the complement on my puff.

I'd love to know more about your tank/fish. There's not much info in your profile.

BTW Ruby Reef-Kick Ich didn't kill any inverts and did kill the Ich. It is extremely slooooow! It's not even effective at all until after the third application. It also significantly reduced the effectiveness of the bio filter (40%).

If you have corals or FOWLR treat aggressively every other day for the first few days. I only wish someone had told me (or posted somewhere how to REALLY use the product). Don't follow the directions on the package for the first 5 days. After that, treatment every 4 days was sufficient. Total treatment time was 30 days at 78 degrees F.

Perhaps you have some experience with Ich treatment other than copper or hyposalinity? There are a few new treatments out there, but none I know of that someone could use with a starfish in the tank.

[Pufferpunk]

It eats about 10-14 krill a day now

Are you feeding anything else? Puffers need a varied diet. Many puffers have been known to succumb to lock-jaw, from a krill-only diet.

[BabyPuff]

PuffPunk,

Thanks for your concern. Whoh! lockjaw is a scary thought.

Yes, this little guy gets a wide variety of food. His diet includes some suggestions from Jager's posts including frozen cubes of Mysis, Brine (yes, not very nutritious, but a treat), crab meat, Silversides, Cod, any snails that escape from the refugium, frozen shrimp. We freeze (uncooked) just about any seafood we eat and save him a taste. We usually feed still frozen if possible to help wear down his plates. He also gets different carnivore diet dried food.

He's a messy eater except when eating krill. So on his krill only days he gets the most food. That's why I used krill as an example of the max he can eat. And yes, I guess he does get some krill almost every day except when I feed the frozen crab. I feed freeze-dried and fresh frozen vitamin enriched krill.

In the near future we intend to add more mollusks to his diet, but I need to buy some that are safe and fresh frozen. I don't want to feed mollusks purchased from the grocery store b/c of potential parasites.

[Rocker]

I would tend to steer away from feeding him frozen food. Very bad idea. Let it thaw thoroughly first before feeding!

[saffib]

why's it so bad to feed frozen food?

[BabyPuff]

Tell me more. I thought the idea was to give them something hard to eat, replicating the shells of snails and rock surrounding hard corals.

I'm really interested in your opinion.

[Jager]

mmm frozen foods are dangerous for two reasons, one they can expand when they thaw and create a huge issue with the puffers stomach, and 2nd many frozen foods use a gel binder to hold the food together in frozen form, and that wreaks havoc with the tanks parameters.

there are companies who do not use gel based frozen cubes, and i use two such ones to provide a treat for my puffers. neither expands when thawed, nor causes undo water fouling. they are a compressed flash frozen food that breaks into individual parts when it hits the water and is attacked by the puffers, so they get a bit of a work out but do not run the risk of rapid food expansion. any other foods i thaw as well. it honestly is not worth the risk for most foods to try it any other way.
the two items are emerald entree and frozen blood worms. both by one company who name escapes me ATM
However i vary the diet using most recommended foods.
unless you keep a diodon species, then most shelled shrimp and other mollusk type foods are better, the diodons have very very slow tooth growth and generally have lockjaw issues instead of overgrowth of the tooth plates, so less hard shelled foods are necessary to feed them and a lot more longitude is availible when it comes to acceptable choices.

[BabyPuff]

Wow! OK. Thanks everyone. I misunderstood some of the posts I read previously.

No more feeding frozen, frozen stuff. I'll buy my puff some cockle in shell like this and thaw it before I feed:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/P ... 044&N=2004 6120

Jager, LMK when you find the name of the food you use. I'd appreciate it.