The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone,

Just wondering if I could get some helping making a PID on the species/sex of this puffer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=5 ... &vq=hd1080
https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=2 ... &vq=hd1080

A femelle irrubesco, probably young slightly too thin...she looks active and not stressed (they curl their tail when worried) though, so she should grow quickly, reach her adult size and fill up in no time

Well, after looking at your video, I confirm but she is indeed quite young, except if you have giant red worms...she need a lot of food to grow strong, feed her well

I thought salivator or irrubesco...

hadla wrote:I thought salivator or irrubesco...

Almost 100% sure it's an irrubesco, there is the typical marking of the species on the back (double V and a bar between the eyes) but spotted/mottled because it is a female. I have never seen salivator in person, but pictures all shows a sort of comma/loop under the jaw and a pattern of lines instead of spot on the flank after the pectoral fin...also they seems to have slightly more rounded snouts, compared to irrubesco...all that, plus the irrubesco is far far more common in the trade, so it's not really a fair bet

gkai wrote:A femelle irrubesco, probably young slightly too thin...she looks active and not stressed (they curl their tail when worried) though, so she should grow quickly, reach her adult size and fill up in no time

Well, after looking at your video, I confirm but she is indeed quite young, except if you have giant red worms...she need a lot of food to grow strong, feed her well

Thank you for the help.

Is this species similar to travancoricus in regards to snails? She seems to only slurp and not attempt to break the shell.

sgthall wrote: Thank you for the help.

Is this species similar to travancoricus in regards to snails? She seems to only slurp and not attempt to break the shell.

My female do that also, and she is older/bigger. Never saw her crush even a small snail, she suck them out...

I have to try with my male, he is bigger still and have more powerful jaw...But I suspect that carinotetraodons are not really shell crusher, which would explain why they also seems immune from tooth overgrowth...

I only feed them snails exceptionally, their main food is defrozen squid, cut small enough

gkai wrote: But I suspect that carinotetraodons are not really shell crusher, which would explain why they also seems immune from tooth overgrowth...

Thank you again for replying. I was hoping this was the case and figured so from watching her attack. I tried to feed tiny pieces of tiger shrimp but she was not interested.

Do you run pressurized co2? Or do you know if this fish has any sensitivity to co2? I ran co2 with DPs for years with no issues.

Do you run pressurized co2? Or do you know if this fish has any sensitivity to co2? I ran co2 with DPs for years with no issues.

No my tank is closer to "el natural"/walstadt method, so no experience at all with co2, but if dp had no problem a good guess is that irrubesco will be similar....I am not sure puffers are especially sensitive to co2 or lack of oxygen, as they are not stream fishes, but live more in still water...they are not labyrinth fishes so will be more sensitive than betas for example, but normal precautions should be enough I guess