The Puffer Forum

After picking up some other fish and plants a few hours ago I saw a tank in the brackish area labeled "Butterfly Grouper: Warning Very dangerous, dorsal spine contains a toxic poison." So of course I'm getting intrested and curious. Looking at their bodies it seemed to be more of a grouper. To make it short I bought the largest one in the tank and its with my figure 8's and it seems they both know not to mess with one another.

Take a look for yourself:





Goby or grouper?

Sorry the little fella kept stopping and going and I couldn't get a clear shot of him.

Just a plain ole butterfly goby.

So it is a goby? Are they poisonous as they claimed it to be?

Cool looking fish! I seem to recall seeing an article on these guys recently...but I can't remember where.

PP - what SG do they need? Any other known requirements like tank size, food (I think it's live/meaty foods), etc?

Eric

So far (s)he has been eating beef heart, brine (live), and black worms (the puff daily mix.)

LFS had them at the SG of 1.008 (like my tank)

That SG is fine. Brine shrimp isn't very nutritious & beefheart is for piranhas, not average aquarium fish. They are shy & slow swimmers & will get beat up by puffers.

Mine is pretty active when the light goes on and the puffs don't even look at him as food.

After doing some research, seems that my hunch was right. These guys are actually part of the grouper/perch family.

How's he doing with your figure 8? I've never seen any locally...but I'd be tempted if I did to pick one up.

Eric

He's doing great. No aggression directed at him nor any to the puffers from him. He is doing great and loving those black worms while the puffs are occupied with the krill at the surface.

It's a fish called Neovespicula depressifrons and is a kind of waspfish rather than a grouper or goby. There's a bit more about them here, as well as a link to their FishBase page.

The sting is in the spines of the dorsal and pectoral fins. While probably not dangerous to most people, you do want to take care as the venom is reputed to be a very painful.

Cheers,

Neale

I want this fish.

Would it go with two GSPs ya think?

I've done my research on them the first few days I had him.

The sting is painful I hear but yet have I not experienced it. The 'wasp'fish title it gets is not directly a species name, but just another name it goes buy. Species wise it is in the perch/grouper family.

Perek I would not look at putting one with a GSP due to the following:

~This fish is faily active and will have strong competition for food.

~GSPs are very curious and if they decide they want a taste of of the wasp, they will be getting more then a chunk of meat.

Mine at the moment is doing great with 3 figure 8's and a dragon goby. I do have to selectivly feed the fella on his own occasionally because he likes clumps of blackworms not single ones... picky bugger....

How much did you pay for one?