The Puffer Forum

....is to go in the store looking for a betta.

Went into another pet store looking for a good looking betta and found this fella. I haven't seen puffers for sale in ages then in one week I find 2 .

I found him labeled as a green spot among about 10 green spots.

I am glad I have found these puffers, but I have to wonder why I can't find a good looking betta

What kind of puffer is that?

It is a figure 8 puffer (f8), Tetraodon biocellatus

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Biocellatus/

That's a figure 8. Different than the Green Spotted, but commonly mistaken for them. Even by shops. Sometimes you'll find a Ceylon in with GSP's, although this doesn't happen nearly as often as I wish it would.

I was walking past a tank in a LFS we had never been in before and I saw those tell-tale eyes ...and it was...woah! Puffers.

The shop had several dwarf puffers in the tank which they didn't know what to do with and we ended up buying up the shipment .

F-8s do not always have the figure-8 marking, and that confuses a lot of LFS staff. But they do always have the eyespots. GSPs are commonly mislabeled also.

El Scorpio wrote:That's a figure 8. Different than the Green Spotted, but commonly mistaken for them. Even by shops. Sometimes you'll find a Ceylon in with GSP's, although this doesn't happen nearly as often as I wish it would.

Out here, they seem to throw Ceylons in with F8s and label them as "jumbo." Sigh.

Gorgeous puff, PC! Hope the new Fangs is doing well, too.

Pufftastic wrote:
Gorgeous puff, PC! Hope the new Fangs is doing well, too.

The fangs is doing well, he is in his new tank now. He seems happy and seems to really love the fake plants. He hasn't gone in his cave once! He just stays among the plants tucked into the sand.

I am still working out how often to feed him though. I have fed him twice so far. It is hard to figure out...He is an adult and he is a lurker, so he should be fed less often than a more active puffer...but I think he would like to be fed every day.

I am a bit worried about the f8. I think he has IPs and he is not a strong swimmer, but he is in good spirits and he has eaten some blood worms and a pest snail that I did not know was in the tank.

RTR wrote:F-8s do not always have the figure-8 marking, and that confuses a lot of LFS staff. But they do always have the eyespots. GSPs are commonly mislabeled also.

I am glad he was mislabeled, I paid the price of a green spot instead of the price of a f8. But, I did explain to the staff why he was not a green spot and I think they will label f8s properly in the future.

I always feed new puffers more for a week or so, just to establish a "bond" . From there feeding can easily be adjusted to suit the individual puffers needs.