The Puffer Forum

The internet says both are also called Leopard Puffer. I bought a "Leopard Puffer", and I previously thought he/she was a GSP, but now I am not sure. schoutedeni and nigroviridis look similiar to me, but one is brackish/saltwater while the other is fresh. How can I tell them apart? Also, the Fluviatilis looks similiar to me.

My puffer doesn't have bright yellow coloration, it is kind of brownish except a patch on his head. I guess this means his conditions aren't optimal. I have never seen him be full yellow, but I have him in a 25 gallon tank all my himself, slowly acclimated to about 1.007 salinity. He's around 3".

There's a simple answer to the potential confusion and that is that T shoutedeni is so extremely rare in the trade that you will probably never need to tell the two apart. I'm not sure whether T schoutedeni has a green crown, either.

Some GSPs are just darker than others. He may surprise you once you get him into full SW, though!

Yeah, that's what I am hoping. He does have a yellow sheen when he moves so that the light reflects off of him though. Is he big enough to move into full saltwater?

T. schoutedeni always has naked-eye visible spines on its belly, while GSPs do not. A healthy GSP always show some degree of green cap, the Spotted Congo does not show a brighter cap.

We really do not know exactly when GSPs go to full SW in the wild.

I have my 3" GSP in full marine and he is living large and strong. His cap is an irridescent green, almost glows in the dark, if that is a reliable indicator. The only problem since he has gone full marine, about 4 months or so, is that he lets my 3 Stripe damsels push him around.

Damsals are pretty mean... meanest fish in my tank!

And devilishly hard to catch...

My mum has a damsel and a clownfish in a 5 gallon tank (I know, I know )and the damsel takes up like 4/5 of the tank as its territory.

It will eventually kill the clown. They also get about 4" long.

I've asked my mom how big the fish get and she doesn't know. She was pretty impressed by a largeish clownfish she saw at a pet store, and it didn't seem to phase her in the least. She is very irresponsible and she just likes them as a decoration. I guess she just wants them to die when they outgrow her tank or something. Maybe I'll adopt them when I go full marine with my 25 gallon tank. Although they probably wouldn't go well with my GSP.

She makes MY petkeeping look good.