The Puffer Forum

I know it has often been said that it's impossible to sex these creatures,

but I have read in a few posts how the owner was able to distinguish between a male and a female.

Was this just a behavioural thing? How was this possible?

Pretty much, the females dumped eggs all over the tank.

Just a thought....

I have noticed on this forum that 9 times out of ten puffers are considered males. As soon as a new puffer comes in the house it is called a he and often given a masculine name. Rarely does one of the members call the puff a she..the last she's that come to mind are Shelly and Feight...among numerous puffs called little guys.

We probably do this because we see males as being the most aggressive of most species and since puffers are very aggressive in our minds they become males..

But statistically, most puffers being male is improbable. At least 50% should be male and 50% should be female...or more realistic 49% should be male and 51% should be female..at least at the juvenile stage

I think if aggression was attributed to females more then we would have more female named puffers. If we thought of puffers as lions, then the female would be the aggressor..And we would have puffs called La fem Nikita, Zena, Trinity, Sonya, or Kitana

And then, if you look at the human species and other species..females tend to survive longer...so that old big guy swimming around in the tank is probably female LOL..

I do this myself, most of my puffers were dudes...and even when my turgidus died because of complications of being filled with eggs I still refer to her as he (Willy)..

I am so willing to bet that Bloat, Master Yoda, Chompers, Viscous, Sampson and so on are totally girly girls!!!!!!

My new ocellatus, Chopstick, is a she & so was my red miurus, Punkster & my baby burrfish, Devlin.

when i had two GSP's together i referred to them as "he and she" the "she" was more aggressive than the "he". i still have the "he", gave the "her" to a friend of mine cause i didnt want her to continually stress out my original puff and my friend just got a 90 up and cycled at marine with my help and really liked the other puff i had. for me until i know better and for sure, most animals i get are males. i dont know why, but then again not all i own/owned i have called a he from the start. my pacman frog was a she. bearded dragon to me is a he until i get it sexed once it grows a little more. leopard gecko roommates called a he. current GSP is a he. clownfish i see as a she. three other damsels i have are two hes and a she. and many others mixed up. just how i immediately saw the animal when i got it lol

Vicious - When I first got Vicious, the shop owner called it a he, and I noted small wrinkles around the eyes. At the time, I thought I was purchasing a DP, so it made sense that Vicious was a he (to me.) Days later, I discovered what I really bought, and have come to the realization that I may or may not have a male - and as much as I really like the name Vicious, I may find myself renaming Vicious if there is some egg dumpage. I have 6 months or so before I need to start watching for that, though.

pets are he's, cars a she's

/thread

Now now Creeper.

Pets are she's too - if they are girls!

Ohyouknow wrote:At the time, I thought I was purchasing a DP, so it made sense that Vicious was a he (to me.) Days later, I discovered what I really bought.

What a surprise when you realized how large the puffer would grow!

Yea, my 10gallon was NOT going to be as sufficient as I thought. I was luckily getting a 25gal from a relative - which seemed to work out perfect until I got my huge tank... Plus gave the boyfriend time to really let it 'settle in' that this water puppy was going to be a great dane... I still don't think it's completely settled in.

purplecandle wrote:We probably do this because we see males as being the most aggressive of most species

Not from some of the women i've met.

Folks who think the males are the aggressive fish must have kept Cichlids. Folks who think the females are the aggressive ones may well be Clownfish keepers.

For most puffers, I have no clue. For my one female Fahaka, she built up eggs regularly (noticeable increase in girth, but not at all like over-eating. The buildup was a bit farther back on the body, and was was more bilateral (low on the sides, on both sides, not largest along the midline of the belly). She dumped these routinely. Many to most were eaten, but there usually were more than enough left here and there to be obvious, plus she lost the side bulges. That was the only mature puffer where I was sure of her gender.

There have been a few F-8s which I though might be females, but it was never as obvious and routine as with the Fahaka.

Thanks RTR, I was wondering if the eggs and such would be something I'd notice - and what to watch for... You know, in case Vicious is a girl. I was afraid it would be something easily missed.

This would/should happen around the 1 year mark? or soon after?

Good question, Nala is getting very close to her year mark. Good thread.

My bf and I noticed we named a lot of our fish after males as well.. not sure why.
Since we've noticed that though we've named fish after females more often.. Shellie.. which has now changed to Milly aka Mildred.. haha and of course Nala.

There is nothing subtle about either an egg-laden adult female Fahaka, or about the scattered left-over eggs - the tank looked like it had been invaded by a horde of egg-laying Olive Nerite snails, mostly working one part of the tank.

But she was several years old when she really started. I'm sure she was well past 3, maybe 4-5 before she became semi-regular.

I don't often name fish. My T. mbu was "Mbu". Only the evil male of the three Fahakas had a name, and the programs on-line will not allow it to be typed (wisely). The old cull goldfish is named Golda II, after a carnival bowl (also cull) goldfish our son brought home many years ago when he was in middle school. He named that fish Golda, and the current feeder-cull, survivor of my carnivorous-frog keeping era, now occupies the tank previously used for the original Golda, so inherited the name with the tank. None of the other fish are named.

Genders in tank-bred fish can easily be skewed by water conditions and growth rates and competition - you cannot count of even distribution between the sexes. My Dwarf Neon Rainbows provide more males than females at trade-in - I suspect that is a competition thing. My Cherry Barbs do the opposite - close to equal or slightly more females than males. The latter is handy for me, as the breeder female do not last as long as the males (not rare for me, neither do the female rainbows) as it provides me with plenty of replacement breeders - i use 3 females for each male for those fish.

Wild-caught schoolers may be pretty evenly matched, but non-schoolers may not - fish which tend to be solitary adults may have slightly different niche choices. Many - including the smaller puffers in the trade (other than the DPs) tend to be caught while they are young enough to be still in groups of juveniles, so may be close to evenly matched, or may not - we just don't know enough about their wild life styles.

HTH