The Puffer Forum

I saw this awesome hyperactive puffer today. What is it?

porcupine puffer

Probably some Sphoeroides, e.g. Sphoeroides maculatus (Northern puffer) or a closely related species. Too blurry to be sure.
https://www.google.de/search?q=Sphoeroides+maculatus

It's not a porcupine. I didn't want to sway anyone's opinion but it was labeled as a evil eye puffer.

"Evil eye puffer" is a name usually used for Amblyrhynchotes honckenii. The pictures do definitely not show this species. Common names are often not very helpful and applied to various species.

Here is a video. I went through the pufferpedia pictures and it didn't look like any of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai0uHU7yJtw[/youtube]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai0uHU7yJtw

I can't give you a definite ID from this video and those pictures. Just the genus seems to be clear: Sphoeroides. And my best guess with the species is Sphoeroides maculatus.

It looks like a Northern Puffer. I asked the store about a scientific name but it wasn't listed.

One more video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskt ... fScmZHfAEk[/youtube]
https://youtu.be/yfScmZHfAEk

Yes, in the new video it's more obvious. Here are three S. maculatus for comparison. I think it's this species.

http://images.joelsartore.com/preview/F ... -00029.jpg

http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/806695 ... ehyEWCKp2y

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... tus%29.jpg

Interesting to see some discussion of the Northern Puffer.

I have been reading the posts in Puffer:Forum for a couple of years though I just registered yesterday, because I wanted to comment on this topic.

I have wondered for some time why people don't seem to keep the puffers native to east coast North America, i.e. northern and southern puffers (although some people do seem to keep burrfish).

Any suggestions?

And Corvus to the rescue with another of my failed attempts at an I.d.

pufferjkb wrote:Interesting to see some discussion of the Northern Puffer.

I have been reading the posts in Puffer:Forum for a couple of years though I just registered yesterday, because I wanted to comment on this topic.

I have wondered for some time why people don't seem to keep the puffers native to east coast North America, i.e. northern and southern puffers (although some people do seem to keep burrfish).

Any suggestions?

I wonder that myself, too!

Temperate and sub-tropical species are less asked for in the aquarium hobby. It's the same in Europe with Mediterranean fishes, which are absent in trade. Some would require much more cooling in summer than tropical species, which is quite a task for many hobbyists. Heating to get tropical temperatures is easier. Another thing is wages and consequently the price in the pet fish store. A porcupine puffer in Brazil costs around 1-2$. With export/import and sale in the store this easily can get up to 40$ for the customer. I guess the prices for marine US-caught-pet-fishes would be higher. This only works for few people who catch themselves or sell to the customers directly. Last not least, tropical species are for many people cooler to have (no pun intended), other pets (frogs, lizards, snakes) in general are also more asked for when they are tropical.

Here's a good paper on the Northern puffer with links to a former keeping and breeding program: http://nefsc.noaa.gov/publications/seri ... hltr26.pdf

Thanks for the information, Corvus, and the article, which I look forward to reading.

While browsing the forum tonight, on page 31 of the Marine Puffers theme, I found a topic by Martin Hi entitled "Why No U.S. Puffers?" which has a lot of useful information relevant to this issue.