The Puffer Forum

There's a porc puffer at one of the stores near me that is really orange compared to the usual ones I see.
Are there different sub-species/color phases or is this just a really cool lookin' one?

Sadly, many porcs are dyed. Jager's puffer lil' Lisa is dyed .

How sad!
I knew they dyed some of the cheap tetras and such, but I never would have thought they'd dye something like a porc puffer.
But it makes sense, knowing which store it was in.

Speaking of dying, I've always wondered, I assume those dye jobs fade in time?

some do some dont. depends on the fish and the way it was dyed.

lisa is very unlikely to fade at all. the glas tetras and such will fade, and the pragish porc will fade as it was probably just dipped in dye rather than injected.

actually glass tetras don't fade, the dye is injected and it's a chemical that doesn't actually dry, eventually it's worked out of it's body.

The puffer will fade over time, but it will fade unevenly, and I never trust the overall health of a fish once that has been happened to it. Takes a lot of the fishes kidneys and filtering organs to handle all that crap.

The puffer lives in a dye pool, fed dyed food, and usually will die early.

Yeah, I would never buy a dyed fish knowingly. It just seems like a cruel dangerous process. But then I guess there are plenty of people who "dye" themselves with tattoos
I guess if my puffer asked for a specific tat, I'd let him get it, but at this point that hasn't happened yet