The Puffer Forum

Hi everybody!
Some time ago I bought two little puffers. They are growing and behaves like happy fish, luckily! The store where i bought them is great and the owner is always helping if you have problem. He is quite the expert and is wellknown here in Sweden, mostly for his chichlids.
The thing is.. He ordered me my puffers from a company who sells all kind of puffers, and they were supposed to be figure eight puffers. Alreday in the store I thought they were greene spotted puffers, but I was told thet they for sure were figure eight! I took them home, thought it didn´t matter if they were figure eight och dotted little greene ones, they were puffers and ive longed fore quite som time to have them... But it would be good to know if they are eights or greenes!!! Are there any specific signs to look for? Im having a relly hard time getting my cellphone camera to transfer pics to my computer, so for now, no pics!! I´ve watched loads of photos on google but Im still not sure. Can someone please help?
Best regards Annika, Piff & Puff - the puffers.

Sorry, no sure ID without pics. You really DO need to know, as their care is quite different.

If you can't tell the difference from online pics, then yes I agree, posting a pic of yours is necessary. They look very different and have very different needs. I posted a pic of a figure eight and GSP for you to compare.

Ok! Getting camera this weekend, so pics will come! Be patient please.
Well, according to your pics, they are not fig 8.. Im really happy I found this forum! Havnt found any proper caring instructions for different kinds of puffers in swedish so far. Its mostly the same instrucitons for all kinds of brakish puffers. To bad.. :C At least I´ve fed them correctly according to the feeding guide! Always something to be happy about.
They live in a 250 liter tank with brakish water. Have lots of hidingplaces and plants. Waterchanges once a week or twice depending on how much and what they eat.. They are quite messy... When I first put them in the tank they showed no signs of stress what so ever, and I´ve seen lots of stressed little puffers in smal tanks with no plants, no salt in the water, so I know what they look like. They just swam around, explored their new home. No fin biting at all. Expected problems in the beginning, but they seem happy. Very curious little critters compare to all other fish I have ( of course not in the same tank.. ). Im completely in love with them and I really hope someone will educate me if Im doing anything wrong. Thanx!!

Figure 8's have these spots called "eye-spots". One is below their dorsal fin and the other is back by their tail. They have them as a defense mechanism to trick predators into thinking their eyes are on their tail. Look at the picture on this article:

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article84.html

You can see the eye spots very clearly towards the back end of this figure 8. If your puffers have these, they are Tetraodon biocellatus.

Also figure 8's only grow to 3 inches. If they are bigger, they aren't figure 8's.

Considering that there seems to be much confusion on their ID from a visual standpoint and considering that the two species in question have obvious visual differences, it makes me strongly suspect that the puffers in question are neither a Figure 8 or Green Spotted Puffer, but likely a Ceylon Puffer which have the same care requirements as a Green Spotted Puffer, but often get confused as being identified as Figure 8's.

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Fluviatilis/?g2_page=1

This is also a green spotted puffer. It's just a different variations of the green spot posted above.


Notice it has black spots like a green spotted puffer, but it has the olive colored snout of the Ceylon posted above

Thanks all!
From what I can see now when I look at yor beautiful pics, they are spotted green. But one of them, Piff, have the eye-spot on his tail. Both have very bright white bellies and are allmost turqoise on their heads, both quite bright green on the rest of the back.
They have both round dots and irregular dotts, but the dots are not black and yellow, just dark brown. They have not the same pattern. It will probably be easyer to see their patterns when they grow up, they are still baby puffers, only about 2cm long.
When i google pics i see loads off different puffers that are called spotted green or figure eight. Perhaps people don´t know what they have in their tanks, just like me. But I have to say its easyer if i google the english name than when i use the swedish. In swedish they are called "fläckig grön kul fisk", translated to english its patterned green marble fish... Not really the same. Oh, these language problems!! :S