The Puffer Forum

So, I started setting up a 20g tank that was to be a BW tank for future Fig8's, but then my LFs got in some "Bleeding Heart" puffers that look like they might be irrubesco, which I've been searching for for awhile.
So, I got 2 females and a male. They're going to live in the 20g with a few bumble bee gobies for the time being while I move the 29g community tank to the 55g. Then they'll get the 29g (very heavily planted and decorated with wood and pots.

Anyway, anyone heard of bleeding heart puffers. If I can figure out posting pictures, they'll be a bunch here for your opinions.
From what I can gather, the male irrubesco have red tails and the loreti doesn't. Well, my male has a half red tail and the tip is black. But it looks a bit beat up, so I'm not sure if the color is because of that or because...
And of course I got better pictures of the females than the male.

Ok, here goes my pic posting

First, the tank. The first pic is from the front, the second from the side facing the bed (the side I actually look through more, probably)





Those are pics of one of the females

Here is the other:




And here's the male. But of course I couldn't get any good pics of him. Some are better and some are pretty blurry, but you can still see the red coloration of his tail.




[/img]

i would say lorteti

The red tail is quite clear. I say Irrubesco.

Definatly an irrubesco. The red tail and black top half are a dead give away.

breed and give to liz.

Liz wrote:breed and give to liz.

You really want some of these guys don't you.

BTW FYI BB gobies are BW fish and Irrubescos are not. You might want to look into moving the BBGs into another tank or bringing them back to your LFS.

Yay! I"ve been searching for Irrubesco for a long time!

I understand that the BBG are BW. I've had the gobies for a bit now. They were in with my Dwarf puffers (quite sucessfully btw) but I felt guilty about them being in FW, so I set up that 20g and was going to start moving them up to BW and getting a tiny Fig8 to go with them.
But, then my LFS got in these Irrubescos, which I've been searching for for a very long time. So, the BW and Fig8 will have to wait a bit. Ultimately, I'm going to move my 29 community tank to my 55g, move the Irrubesco pair (sadly, one of the females died the day after I got them) to the 29 and slowly bring that 20g up to brackish water.

Liz, I do hope to breed them, since finding Irrubesco around here seems to be next to impossible. Although, the LFS that I got them from seems to be able to get them whenever. He orders them from his Chicago supplier under the name of Bleeding Heart Puffers. I tried to tell him that they're a great FW puffer and that people would surely buy them if he stocked them. But, the problem is, this time he order 6 of them. I took 3 (2F 1M) and the next day one of my females died. And within 2 days the 3 that he kept at the store were dead too. So, it seems that they're pretty touchy or don't ship well. Maybe he could order them again and ask to have them individually bagged or something.

I've also noticed that they spend a good deal of time swimming up and down the glass. I would assume that it's because they're bored or don't have enough decor, but looking at the pics I posted, doesn't the tank look interesting enough for them? I wonder if they're wild caught, and used to more space? Any ideas or tips to make them feel more at home?

Here is a pic of the 29g that will be they're eventual home. Think I could keep a pair of skunk cories and a couple otos in with them?


And for those that read my quiet filters post. I bought a penguin 350 for the 29g and moved the Fluval 204 to the 20g. So, everything is lookin' (and more importantly sounding) good.

Thing about irrubescos are that they are evil as hell when in small tanks and in big numbers. They constantly fight for food and territory and most LFS (not all) do not feed enough or give enough space for them to be housed till they go off to a home.

From experience I know that LFS only purchase fish they can keep alive in the store and or with other fish. If its a large store (ex: That Pet Place/ That Fish Place) they can keep 1 species per tank. Or if its a mom and pop store (like what im at) mixing species is the only way to keep a variety of fish. Its hard for a mom and pop store to have a species tank of a fish that kills eachother or kills other fish, so in the end they never order them again.

Cories will be fine with puffs. I've never had a cory attacked yet killed by a puff. Otos are a bit small and Never have tried them personally with puffs.