The Puffer Forum

hi there I'm new in here , I'm from Belgium so my English is not that good,

I'm owner of a 45 gallon tank with 12 travancoricus 10m/2f (I'll swap them soon with female)

and i just started a new tank 50 gallon with 4 irrubesco
i thought i bought 1 male/3 female , in the shop 1 had a red tail and the 3 others not

now a week later they all have red tails .;; I'm lost what to do
will they kill each other or ... ill try later on the week to go back to the shop and i should swap them because if i put 8 irrubesco in 150L it wont be good

so my question is it possible that females have been seen with slightly coloured red tail ??

Yes

Female

It's very easy to see the difference between male and female...
Study some pictures

While I agree with Rocker on this, I think it varies. Just watching my pair this minute (the male is chasing her about!) and her tail isn't in the least red. Sometimes it is more obviously red. So perhaps mood matters, and the females can change the colour? Anyway, go by the other characters. The males are bigger and have brown bodies with cream-coloured stripes. The females are smaller, with more "camouflage" colouration and in particular wriggly brown lines on the cream-coloured belly, something the males do not have.

Females of some other Carinotetraodon can look very similar. I have seen one shop here in England sell both C. irrubesco and C. lorteti as a single species.

Cheers, Neale