The Puffer Forum

I'm driving myself nuts trying to compare my puffers to pictures on the internet So apologies in advance if this has been hashed over many times already...

The fish stall owner has a whole tank of Green spotted puffers, from babies to adults...(5 inches roughly). He absolutely insists that they are freshwater species and NOT salt water (after noticing I was buying salt). He told me that they were easily confused with a similar species and that these ones were definitely freshwater.

Totally lost now.

Here is a picture of my puffer, roughly 1.5 inches... couldn't get a good sideshot of him, keeps running away




apologies in advance again >.<!!

There is no such fish as a FW GSP.

No apologies necessary, the shop owner is misinformed. There is no freshwater type, but since they travel between fresh and saltwater in the wild, they can survive for short periods in freshwater, and are most likely caught in freshwater. (Maybe)
That's the first time I've heard of someone claiming a separate freshwater species of green spotted puffer lol

Thanks! Just needed confirmation before I started my marine tank in vain... heh

Still perturbed by how insistent he was. Is there not a T. Shoutedeni that is freshwater? Can't seem to find it in the pufferpedia / somewhere else reliable on the internet...

(http://puffernet.tripod.com/schoutedeni.html)

There is but you'll never find one... They don't have the bright green spot on their heads & they also have visible longer spines. Puffernet is the WORST site to go for ID of puffers! (I can't believe that site is still on the web.)

its sad how misinformed/or just dont care most LFS's are

I had a similar argument with a tattoo artist, I called the gsp a brackish water puffer, she said she had some before, but they were freshwater. I explained that pet shops sell them as freshwater, that they can live short term in freshwater, but it's not ideal, and so on so forth, basically explaining it the best I could, and she still insisted that hers were freshwater. I told her to look it up, to make sure were talking about the same puffer, showed her the green spotted puffer, and she said, "Yeah they looked like that, but mine were definitely freshwater."
I stopped arguing when the proof was right in front of her, but she still insisted, even getting slightly mad about it.

Btw, I love that your avatar is just like your puffer. My Balki has a mickey mouse shaped spot too.

My first GSPs were sold to me as FW back before most folks on this forum were even born. Then it took me some years to find out that they were really BW fish. They can survive extended periods in FW, but it will not give them proper size, coloring, health, or lifespan. Sites such as one cited above are an embarrassment. Many of the photos they use were pirated, and they have not updated their information ever - unless they have done so recently, which I doubt.

As it now appears that GSPs do breed in SW, so we really should all be keeping them in BW to SW at all times. But the importers, distributors, and stores are very slow to catch on, and most of the hobby literature is equally behind the curve.

You know, Id think stores would love to sell them as a SW fish since they could most likely pull more money for the fish that way

sevenyearnight wrote:Btw, I love that your avatar is just like your puffer. My Balki has a mickey mouse shaped spot too.

hehe thanks


They sell 5-6 inch GSP's here for $1 or $2 >_< hm!
Selling more GSP's to FW customers and keeping costs down without salt/maintenance would make a larger profit :O

toffeecake wrote:

sevenyearnight wrote:Btw, I love that your avatar is just like your puffer. My Balki has a mickey mouse shaped spot too.

hehe thanks


They sell 5-6 inch GSP's here for $1 or $2 >_< hm!
Selling more GSP's to FW customers and keeping costs down without salt/maintenance would make a larger profit :O

W-W-What?? And my F8s are only 2" and cost $9? Something seriously wrong there. Any place Ive been they sell GSP and F8s for around $8 at the least Ive seen. And I think youre right, even though they could charge a higher rate by selling them SW, there are probably more amateur hobbyists out there (if they can reel them in) to buy a cute puffer in FW. Poor things!

P.S. Toffeecake... your avatar is really adorable

That's because she lives near where the GSPs are from.

Pufferpunk wrote:That's because she lives near where the GSPs are from.

Whoa youre right! lol Hong Kong! Wouldnt it be interesting to go scuba-diving and see our puffers in their natural environs? That would be cool

fugu99 wrote:

Pufferpunk wrote:That's because she lives near where the GSPs are from.

Whoa youre right! lol Hong Kong! Wouldnt it be interesting to go scuba-diving and see our puffers in their natural environs? That would be cool

yeah, I'd love to see dwarf puffers in the wild!

also, so the pics on that link are gsps or that rare puffer? cause I know I've seen gsps that look a hell of a lot like those!