The Puffer Forum

my LFS had a great looking ceylon puffer which i ended up buying ,he was almost completely black when i saw him and to day when i picked him up he was the same colour, they had him in fresh water so i assumed this was probably why.
anyway he's in my brackish 55gallon now and after about 20mins his belly has gone completely white apart from one spot which is black, it looks almost like a mole it's very black and the edges are very sharp unlike the rest of his spots, has anyone seen anything like this before and do you think it's anything to be worried about.

ok resized pic you should be able to see it now





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Although I don't see the mark you are speaking of, my guess is it's a previous pufferbite.

it's the black mark on his belly it's very visible but only when he is white underneath as so as his belly changes to black you can't see it, doesn't look like a normal marking to me it seem to dark and very crisp around the edges.

IDK, maybe that pic is too big? I only see the tail end of a fish in your pic.

Thanks for resizing, I see it now. Pufferbites are a perfect circle. That looks oblong? Maybe puffers have birthmarks.

it does look like a birth mark or maybe a mole ? it doesn't have any other marking that low down on either side it's not raised either i've never seen anything like it before

well it can be a birth mark or one of the puffers natural markings as it's changed from a black spot to a white spot, when the puffer has a white belly you can't see it at all ,but when his belly is black it shows up as a white spot, i did catch him and rubbed my finger over the spot but i can't feel anything



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That is crazy looking..

I don't think that is a typical spot. I have a GSP with a spot on his white part (it is small and not as noticeable as yours) Just a spot that somehow got below the border..

But when he turns black the spot stays black.

Maybe it is damage...does nitrate or nitrate damage cause spots? I though I saw that somewhere.

that almost looks like a heater burn...

That's the weirdest thing... Still think it's a birthmark of some kind.

I think it probably is something like a "birthmark", or some sort of pigmentation of the skin. Not sure, otherwise he looks like a healthy Ceylon.
You're going to love him Dave, they really are nice puffers, I love mine to bits.

well is thinking some kind of natural mark as well but i'm not sure as in a week it's changed from black to white , he seems healthy enough so i'll keep an eye on him, he stays black pretty much all the time if the lights are on so i guess he doesn't like the light much.
Suzanne i think you right he seems like a nice puffer ,he still seems a little skittish at times he seems to have a mad half hour every night where he splashes water around and tries to chew the glass but other than that he is fairly chilled out, bye the way helmut is still doing great

Well, as I recall, when I first got mine the original two were very skittish and I had to move very slowly around them. I have to say that they are fairly good now, although I do still get the splash at the surface of the water from time to time, but that's Yorkie my big guy, he likes drama.

I'm very pleased to know that Helmut is doing good, that makes me happy. I just moved my Abei from the small tank he was in to my 58-gallon tank (I rehomed my Fahaka), and he is loving the extra space. I don't think he's quite sure what to do in such a big tank!