The Puffer Forum

Last year for Mother's Day I got 2 more dwarf puffers to add to Missy's tank. This year I got these cute buggers, labeled "red belly puffer" and I am thinking irrubesco. Although, let me tell ya, I looked at this tankful, and looked at pictures of the different "red eyes" and they are NOT easy to tell apart.

These are what I think might be 2 female.








This has some of what I think is male...his red tail and red belly line were much more prominent in the store, so hopefully once they all settle down he will show off for my pictures.





These "little guys" (what I have been calling them so far) have already chowed down on some bloodworms and I am looking forward to decorating a new tank I am hoping they will live peacefully in a 29 gallon, but if not, I guess I will have to move the instigator(s).

My other Mother's Day Present was what I believe is a fangs (cochinchinensis sp?) puffer. This was totally unplanned for. I had called several stores to see if they had any puffers, and if not, I was going to probably go pick up a fig8 and some bumblebee gobies. This store was one we had never been to before and I was surprised to see a suvatti and 2 LARGE GSP.






As you can see, he was pretty stressed from the transport. He is starting to hunt around his new tank now and his color is getting better.



If I have guessed wrong on either of these puffers, please let me know. No matter what they are though, I am just tickled to death to be able to add to my puffer family!

If the male has a red tail, your "dwarfs" are irrubescos
I know c. lorteti has been called red bellied puffers, and they are very much alike the irrubescos. But the main difference is that the male does not have a red tail. I have both species here, and they are very much alike

When it comes to your other puffer, some other have to answer. Target puffers are difficult to tell apart, and I am still confused about my own

Having studied the whole tank for quite awhile, I was still hard pressed to positively ID. I have only read that the C. Borneensis has a red belly stripe, but that the C. Irrubesco had the definite red tail on males. And then the pics of C. Salivator show more of the black lines on the bellies of the females. So confusing! I truly hope they are Irrubesco, as that is what I had looked for for a long time, love their coloring, and taking into account that the Borneensis, Lorteti and Salivator claim to not be seen in the trade as often when researching, figure it is most likely Irrubesco. Either way, they are beauties

The bottom Target looks like a Fangs T Coch. but you never can tell.

The target puff in these pics is the same as in my other thread and you suggested you thought it might be an abei. I haven't seen too many really good pics of abei, but I am going on the note that I read says "the easy way to identify this one is to look for the red dot near the tail, if it has one, it is most likely T. cochinchinensis". No matter what he truly is, he is beautiful!

Beautiful! I'm going to have to start doing the rounds for red eyes, hopefully they are in season at the moment!

I know I had sent an email to Mike at RMS about 8 months ago asking if he could get in FW puffers, specifically mirius or irrubesco.....imagine my surprise when in aggravation I decided to phone around and see if anyone had any puffers because I was having a lousy Mother's Day and figured the least I could do was get another puffer! Mike never emailed me about them which kind of disappointed me, but, hey, it must have been fate that I called that day!

kimmers318 wrote:The target puff in these pics is the same as in my other thread and you suggested you thought it might be an abei. I haven't seen too many really good pics of abei, but I am going on the note that I read says "the easy way to identify this one is to look for the red dot near the tail, if it has one, it is most likely T. cochinchinensis". No matter what he truly is, he is beautiful!

He looks totally different in the other pic, im assuming thats his "im settles in my new home colours" and this was "feck, ive been bagged, bumped and carried, not happy" colours?

Oh yeah....he was definitely showing stress after being bagged and brought home! He was gorgeous in the store, and is coloring up nicely here now.

So cute! Youur irrubescos are lovely, and the Fangs (?) looks like a little puppy resting his chin on the floor!

Hopefully he will start acting more puppyish soon too. He finally got brave enough to slowly cruise around the tank during the day today WITH the tank light on! He moves very slowly and seems to be just checking things out.
Anyone who has experience with these guys and has some tips I would appreciate it! Not a big eater yet, but that is not surprising, has only taken a small piece of krill, but I see that the snails on the bogwood seem to be fewer