Diodon Liturosus

[SimonT]

Hello All, how are we today?

My name is Simon Trippick, and I have been keeping fishes for many years, both marine and tropical. I am a current wetwebmedia crewmember and am answering questions for Bob whenever I can, which sometimes is a lot, and sometimes is not!

I have joined today because I am now the proud owner of a Diodon holocanthus pufferfish. Wait.... did I say holocanthus? No, now the fish is in my tank I am pretty sure it is a liturosus!

The fish is about 7-8 inches, and was a freebie - to a good home - from someone who was no longer able to keep it. I took one look at it, took pity, (thought to myself 'wow what an amazing fish!') quarantined it and introduced it yesterday - to my 700 gallon reef tank full of Montiporas you would struggle to get your arms around (yes I know there is a risk here).

I love the fish so much and my wife is in love with it, I am worried though how big it will get in my aquarium, which is 7.5 feet long and 5 foot wide - will it get 20-26 inches in my tank, or likely top out at about a foot (which I can handle easily).

Tankmates are all pretty large fish, none are too aggressive, Imperator Angel is the boss. So far all are ignoring the puffer and vice versa. I would love for this to work out and the puffer to have a long & happy life with us.

Love to hear from anyone who has experience with this fish - It's a beauty!

[Pufferpunk]

I was a WWM Crew member for several years. Got a great free dive trip to the Red Sea with Bob & some of the wonderful other folks on WWM out of that. Too bad they don't offer this anymore.

The POTM winners are often holocanthus --they're so cute! Is you'rs the liturosus? Love to see some pics!

[SimonT]

Hi - is it Jeni? I have read a lot of your posts on WWM over the years!

Yes I'm sure it is a liturosus - he's got short spines on the head. I originally thought it was a holocanthus. Schoolboy error, but I would have taken him anyway, since he was free and needed a home. I was wondering/ worried how big is he likely to get in my 700g tank?

For some reason I can't seem to search on the forum - the articles in the library are inaccessible to me at least. Is there one on the liturosus?

He seems really really peaceful - a bit hesitant - hanging around under the big plates in my tank, he's just marvellous!When he comes out a bit I'll take a photo and post!

[Pufferpunk]

Yep, it's me!

I'm afraid we are having serious problems with our server right now, so until we move over to a new one we will unfortunately be without our Pufferpedia. We are trying to load some of the most pertinent articles form the Libary into the forum.

We do not have a species profile for your puffer but I'd assume it would be very close to the holocanthus, growing to 18".

So what's your specialty on WWM? I really got tired of correcting spelling, punctuation & capitalization. It just took too much of my time to answer letters that way, although I do understand why Bob wants it done.

[SimonT]

Heee! A fellow (ex)wetwebber!

My Speciality is general reef stuff - Corals, setup, maintenance, parasite control/ quarantine/ lighting - pretty much most things reef except small fishes which I am hopeless at! I really can't tell people what species one small wrasse is over another, but ask me about anything Pomacanthus and I'll ramble all day long!

Yeah it can be a bit annoying when some people obviously have not bothered to try to spell correctly, but most all are pretty good really, I really enjoy helping people out, when I have the time.

I tried to upload a photo of my tank, but the file is too big. I'll play around a bit and get one posted, it's quite a sight to behold, and all the better with the puffer in it! I just hope the corals don't end up being puffer food, but I've heard the Diodons are pretty good compared to others? We'll see.

If you don't have an article on the liturosus perhaps I'll write one for you if you like after I've had him for a while

[Pufferpunk]

We'd love to have anything you write for our (new) Library!

Check the posts here in the marine sections, I'm sure we could use your help on those subjects.

[Corvus]

I'm also found on WWM (Marco), but no moray eel questions for me in the last months...

D. liturosus can reach an impressive size of around 2 feet, most will stay smaller though even in tanks of sufficient size such as yours. It's most often confused with D. holocanthus and sometimes even hystrix. Too bad the forum does not work properly at the moment, there might have been some info on the site and I know we had threatd with pictures on this species.

[Troender]

We really would love to see pics of that one!

[SimonT]

Thank you both (all!), and hello Marco! I have a Snowflake Moray as well, but I always intended to have one of those so I constructed a network of tunnels out of 1.5 inch pipework hidden all around the back of the reefscape before I did the rockwork - he's about 18 inches long now and a real beauty. He's very happy with his lair - pokes his head out of the numerous entrances and looks so cool!

'Puffy' (named by my wife) is still very hesitant, likes to hover under the overhangs of rock and coral.

I should have some time over the weekend to sort out a pic or two!

Bye for now

[SimonT]

Just took this on my phone.. best I can do right now, and only the blues are on this time of night (it's 10pm here in England!)

Not a great shot, but he's a looker for sure! The fish in the front is a Cheilinus fasciatus.

I'll have another go at the weekend!

[Pufferpunk]

LOL, looking forward to "better" pics!

[J-P]

ohhh welcome aboard!

New Mentor here at TPF?

[Pufferpunk]

Mentors need to stick around a while...

[SimonT]

Hello all again, thank you for the the 'mentor' complement, but like Pufferpunk says, my life/ workstyle means I can't be around all the time, although I would like to be. It's hard enough with WWM!

It's been a couple of weeks, I've been busy with life, mostly of the work kind. Someone asked me to do a big tiling & Kitchen Job - Nice! But pretty much 7 days for 2 weeks or so. It's mostly done now, and in the meanwhile Puffy has been settling in and I've got some nice photo's to share! Yay! He (She?) is such a wicked fish!

[bertie 83]

That's an impressive tank. What area you from?