The Puffer Forum

I'm posting a picture of my red-eye puffer, originally named Molly Gru because I thought she was a female but now I'm not so sure. The left picture is her the day I got her, the middle picture is a few weeks later and the third bottom one is from 2 days ago.
I've had her for about 2 months now. One of the employees of my LFS apparently got 2 of these for himself hoping for a pair. He said they both turned out to be female so he sold me this one. I have no idea how long he had her before I got her. I recently moved her into a 10 gallon and within a few days she developed a stripe on her belly and turned more brown. I am assuming by the belly stripe my she is a he? Is this normal for C. lorteti - did he suddenly hit puberty or something? Thanks

Thank you Pufferpunk I guess my question is, is it normal for changes to happen that quickly? Do puffers sex change?

Well Molly Gru is definitely a male. Today, red fins seemed to pop out of no where! Pictures are (horrible) blurry but best I could do. Now the question is - is this really a C. lorteti or a C. irrubesco? I tried to find information on how old puffers are when their sexual traits start to show but I haven't found anything other then vague "adult size"

Maybe if you resize them I could see better.
Here's my male lorteti:

He definitely doesn't look like yours. Heres some new pics I got this morning



Going by the pufferpedia he looks like a c. irrubesco to me - thoughts?

Pretty sure the male has a big red belly.