The Puffer Forum

Hi I'm new to the whole Forum thing and not sure if I'm posting this in the right place ...
Me and my partner went to a LFS today, one we don't particularly like OR trust but we thought we would pop in and have a nosey!
Well as soon as we stepped in we notce a ticket stating Mbu puffer £60 I couldnt believe my eyes as we have only ever seen Mbu's for £150 + When we managed to locate it in the display tank we saw it was very small and decided this must be the price difference. Further to that we notice that it appeared to be in pretty bad shape
Well that was it we HAD to save him! lol
My parnter negotiated the price down to £50 and we thought we had a bargain as well as doing this little puffer a life saving purchase.
The LFS told us they had been feeding him every other day, something we know is just not enough (we learnt when we purchase two colomesus puffers earlier in the year).

Having purchased this little fella we drove straight to our normal fish shop to get a once over for him by some people who know what they're talking about!

Upon arriving and explaining where we had been one of the fish keepers immediately said i bet without even looking at it that it's not a Mbu it's a Fahaka !!! well out of the paper bag he came and the four fish shop emplyees who had gathered all gasped! He was THAT thin.

Now none of them could tell for certain if he is a Mbu or Fahaka, and all believe him to be on deaths door and appeard unhopeful that we would even be able to get hime to eat due to how starved he appeared. So we have brought him home to nurse him back to health and see what time will show. We have put him in our smaller tank to start with (as advised) It is a 70 litre tank with small/med community fish. so far so good, he hasnt shown the slightest it of interest in anything other than the snail population! He started eating bloodworm before i had even taken him out of the bag to acclimatise. Within just half an hour he looked SO much better.

Now I'm worried because he is a lovely puffer but if he is indeed a Fahaka there is no way we can keep him

Here are some pictures when he first entered the tank prior to eating, I will take some more tomorrow in the light.
Anyone got any strong inclination to what he may be???
Thank You

Here are some pictures of him today ahving been on a snail hunt ALL night! I stayed up until 2 watching him and he appeared really happy.

looks like a baby Tetraodon lineatus.

Definitely a fahaka I would put money on it what size tank is he going in

Need a bigger tank pm me if you need a home for him lol I am only 20 mins away if u need anything

He will be going into a 200l when his strength builds up. He looks a lot better today. How aggressive are Fahaka's? I know it can be on the indivdual but in general what are they like?

He will be very aggressive needs his own tank he will kill anything he lives with and 200 litres will not be big enough for long

He hasn't appeared at all agressive to the fish he is with at the moment. Is this due to his current state?

Probably also he is young mine was fine with tank buddies for a while but murdered them all in a rage also killed my 5 ottos when he was 3 mths old

If he was to go in with larger tank mates that will grow to a similar size is he still likely to turn into jack the ripper!

He will murder much bigger fish than himself they need to be solitary

I know someone posted this already but you really need to read it!
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/T_Lineatus/

It's nice you rescued this fish but now you need to give it the life it deserves. You wouldn't rescue a starving dog & then keep it in a small cage all it's life, would you? What kind of rescue is that?

Also you have been overcharged fahakas are about £16-£20 I would speak to the shop as their Id was wrong which shop was it? Although coming from Worthing I can probably guess lol. Buy a nice 120 gal and have an amazing single specimen set up you won't regret it lol

I believe the price to too late to haggle over. I'd stay out of that shop. Not only are they horrible at ID but they mistreat their fish!

Thanks for the comments. I was never intending to keep it within such a small tank and was getting ready to buy a bigger tank. I picked him up because he was in such poor condition, I went to the fish shop to look at lizards and saw the poor guy. Thinking he was a Mbu i thought the price was good and as i was fully intending to upgrade to a much much larger tank. I would never by fish from 'Beyond Atlantis' normally, as my normal fish shop call it 'Beyond A Joke'. Also now i know he is a Fahaka, it is not possible for me to house him I don't have the set up available for him at the current moment. I'm very dissapointed because he really is quite a character. I do keep colomesus puffers in another tank and i think they are awesome. How long do i have before he becomes agressive he is still very chilled out. I spoke to the shop who said they would refund me if i give them the fish back TBH I don't want them to have it they are a terrible shop who have put me out of pocket big time!