The Puffer Forum

I got some puffers from a local online fish store, they claim that they are Amazon puffers, but told me they needed brackish water ( I know amazon puffers are full freshwater). Since the majority of amazon puffers are wild caught I doubt that the seller got them shipped from south america considering they sold them for $3 each converted from local currency, no one else sells this puffer anywhere I look, even at some aquarium fish market I frequent, so I highly believe that these puffers were locally caught and people who sold them thought they were amazon puffers.

I watched all the videos on youtube on amazon puffers and looked everywhere on the internet for a photo that looked like my puffer but to no avail. The stripes on my puffer are too straight to be an amazon puffer, and the body colour and shape are different, although the personality of the puffer are similar to the amazon puffer description.

does anyone have any idea what type of puffer this is?
thank you in advance

Looks like Amazons to me. Are their teeth overgrown?

That does not look like an amazon, with the its three stripes and lack of spots on the sides. I’m thinking either a banded puffer (Columnasis psicattus) or a color form of a golden puffer?

With those buck teeth, I am sure it is a SAP.

Yeah, I can’t think of a different puffer with that particular structure except the columnasis species.

Do you know what these fish were marketed as? If they were wild caught, they could have been mistaken for something they’re not. I’ve seen baby GSPs marketed as dwarves!
Try looking up marilyna pleurostica. They’re a saltwater species from Australia, and look pretty much like those pics.

I saw a SAP selling as a fahaka!

That's a huge difference there!
When it comes to rare fish like these, the local fish stores often don't know what they get in, so label them based on what they think. That's why you might see a pacu sold as a silver dollar, or a juvenile Texas cichlid sold as a Jack Dempsey. These things happen, so just be sure to know everything about what you are purchasing before you pick them up!

As SAPpyPuffer noted it seems to be one of the striped Marilyna species, most likely Marilyna pleurostica. We had this species several times on this forum in the past. Try a search for pleurosticta and its possible cousin species Marilyna darwinii.

Here's one of the old threads. There are more on the forum.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15928&p=163001&hili ... ta#p163001

and pics of older ones:

What you have look like juveniles of those puffers. They do bare a resemblance to colomesus species, with those beaks!

A more common name, I found out, is banded toadfish. They don’t seem too common in the fish trade, so it’s cool that you came across one!