The Puffer Forum

Hey all, I've had my irrubesco for about a year now, and sometimes I notice this small red line at the middle, centre of his tummy. It's usually rather small about 0.5 cm so I never thought much of it.

Lately however, the red line has extended to almost spanning the entire length of his otherwise very white tummy, and is very prominent. Any cause of worry, or is this normal?

Thanks!

like this?

http://zuborafishing.cool.ne.jp/zukan/z ... igai/1.jpg

?

Edit: Picture replaced with link. Please refrain from posting pictures without written permission from owners.

Woland

Yes... somewhat.

Fella, I hope that wasn't your fish! I believe the males do that as a sign of "readiness".

Pufferpunk wrote:Fella, I hope that wasn't your fish! I believe the males do that as a sign of "readiness".

It's not my fish. It is in fact the single google image result from a japanese website for "Carinotetraodon borneensis", which is listed on fishbase here.

Whenever I have had males in the past they have done similar, but not as strong a red as that. You'll notice also the tail is a slightly different colour than you'd expect also. I was going to write that in my original post that irrubesco display the red when they're preparing, but I didn't have time.

Wow! Ok, that's news. Thanks! So I'm supposed to find him a wife now? He killed his last wife... maybe he was not ready then. Anyway, here are the pictures of his red line...

Way too cute for his own good.

Just because he thinks he needs a wife doesn't necessarily mean that he does need a wife. If he's killed a mate in the past I wouldn't risk a little girl puff's life by putting her in with him. From what I've seen on the forum, irrubescos seem to be very prone to spousal abuse unless given plenty of room to hide from each other, and even then it's risky.

Edit: it might be cool to put those pics up in the PufferPedia so other irrubesco owners will know what's going on with their little boys.

Now that is some serious war paint. He is a good looking Irrubesco.

What he really needs is a puffer bar. A few shots of puffer tequila and a one night puffer stand.

Lol, thanks for all the puffer praise. I always thought he was only cute in my eyes. But yes, he's totally adorable with a extreme puffer personality. The last wife he killed was a little too small for him. Maybe that's why. I don't even think I can find a female, so if I can find a suitable one, then I'll consider trying.... maybe separate them first.

If you do try to breed again, maybe only hve them together for a short time and then seperate them. Or use a tank divider.

This is very interesting. My male irrubesco sometimes has the little red keel, but though he lives perfectly amicably with a female, he hasn't shown any evidence of wanting to breed. Hardly any aggression between them, though sometimes the male half-heartedly chases her a bit.

The odd thing is that the female has been really swollen sometimes, which I assume is eggs. At the moment she's a little slimmer. When I first got them, she was quite a bit smaller than the male, but the're about the same size now, so I assume fully grown.

I've heard of people spawning lorteti, but not yet irrubesco. I assume they're similar, but don't know for certain.

Each fish has a home-made half-coconut covered in Java moss and Java fern. These fish seem to love these... but not so much going into the "cave" part of the structure. Their favourite thing seems to be digging into the Java moss.

The fish live with some cardinals and a couple of Danio choprai; these certainly have helped the puffers become more outgoing (dither fish?) but I wonder if they're also scaring them a bit, preventing the puffers from spawning.

Cheers,

Neale

My two, hiding, as usual!


And a little movie of them tucking into bloodworms. As you can see, they mostly ignore each other
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/files/ca ... ubesco.mov

i love your puffer! to me he almost looks like a tree frog in your pictures, but sooooo cute!

and yes, maybe a puffer one night stand?!?

Yes dear Creamy...
Wasabi is indeed cute... so agrees your mum too (her mum dotes on this fish)... Its a pity why most aquarist do not see beyond the "snail remover" function of puffer fishes and start liking their "cuteness" and personalities.

Here in my land, aquatscaping and planted aquariums are a really BIG thing. Sadly the only thing i read about on the forums about puffers are how they are bought to accomplish a snail killing mission and after that the owners have no idea what to do with them (most destroy them I think).

I have kept Apistos before (sadly they all gave up on me and went "home"). What I can say is that I find the puffers having personalities just like my Apistos... Way Kool.