The Puffer Forum

it seems the idea of a pair of dog faces is a big no no so does anyone keep 2 valentinos together?
also is there anyway of sexing them?

I think Corvus might be able to sex them. They live in pairs naturally, in the wild.
Also, see: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=25088

Valentini's? If my research is correct keeping valentini's together is also not a good idea. These puffers mate and move on. I dont recall reading anywhere that its ok to keep them together, regardless if its a male and female or not they will fight.
Male and female are easily told apart. Males have brightly multicolored stripes right behind their eyes, like eyelashes. These markings are not present on females.

Jose is right about the bright, mostly green stripes around the eyes of the adult males. Females and also young males do not have them.

C. valentini have a more complex social life than many other Canthigaster puffers, which are mostly found as singles or in pairs. C. valentini tobies also often occur in groups up to about 100 individuals (with mixed in mimic filefish) where each male has a harem of females. They even try to enter the territories of others in "female disguise" to steal females.

However, in the aquarium it is quite well possible to keep them as a pair. It's best to introduce a mated pair, but given you sexed them right it is also possible to introduce one at a later point of time. Just be careful during the first meetings and feedings. I know a few people who tried this, probably they did it right, because it worked like a charm.

Interesting Corvus. I have read quite the opposite. I like my little female solo. She's more interesting with no distractions.

Yes, I can imagine that those cases where two males (maybe one adult with green lines and one subadult without) or even two females (which can be very territorial in this species) were put together lead to unwanted results, which consequently were followed by the recommendation to NOT keep two of them together. This really only works reliably with a true pair. (It also works with C. jactator and C. solandri or C. papua pairs, and probably many others).

A single toby can be very interesting, but I also liked keeping pairs (which I did in the past) showing their unique mating and communication behaviour.

right. i can confirm a pair of valentini`s (male and female of same size) is a big no no.
it was like world war 3 in my tank last night.
at the mo i have a very naughty male in a floating breeding tank to stop him ripping my female apart untill the lfs opens again sunday.

so to confirm most of the replies and to answer my own question, its a no no.

Now you know & can hopefully pass this experience on to others who ask.

Hard to believe for me the genders have been properly identified. Pictures?

As noted above I can name quite a number of tanks where putting together a pair of C. valentini worked very well. Have so far to see the opposite here. In the not working cases the supposed line-less "female" turned out to be a male, which showed its green lines only later when kept alone.

well the one i had was and is a female, i had her around 2 months before i got the male and there was and still isnt any lines, the male i brought had very obvious lines, no pics unfortunatly in all the chaos of the fighting pictures was the last thing on my mind, but im 100% sure of the sex

It can take more than 2 years until the lines develop.

in that case then ill have to keep an eye on the "female" i kept and see if the lines ever appear

Yes I'm looking forward to hear if anything changes. I cannot exclude that there are not compatible pairs, but given how these puffers live in nature it would be surprising to me.