The Puffer Forum

Does anyone happen to have a picture of a T. leiurus? I bought one from a local pet store but obviously target puffers are hard to identify, I looked through the user forums and my "leiurus" looks exactly like a puffer that woland owns but it is labeled Tetraodon ? this is probably a dumb question but i thought i'd try since for some reason my camera will not take clear pictures of the tank that he is in

Tetraodon is the family name, that's what the "T" stands for. So a leiurus is a Tetraodon leiurus.

Kingdom, phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (or k.ittens p.laying c.hase o.n f.reeways g.et s.mashed) I understand fish genus and species names you've misunderstood my typing. in wolands pictures he has unknown species labeled "Tetraodon ?" meaning he doesnt know the species, mine looks exactly like the one labled "Tetraodon ?" so i was wondering if anyone had a guess what species wolands "Teraodon ?" picture is

Like i said it is a stupid question due to all the confusion on the target group but i know it's not cochinchensis or barbatus since i own both species and i'm not sold on leiurus yet, i guess i was just wishful thinking that mine can be properly identified with someone elses picture

Most of the pictures I've seen of people's supposed leiurus have later been determined to be turgidus.

This is a picture from Woland's user gallery and it is a bigger version of mine, small faded eyespot, brownish color and all, I have no reference to say if this or mine is a leiurus, but i know it's not a turgidus. The store i bought mine from labeled my ceylon puffer as a green jade puffer and cochinchensis as black river puffer so i definately don't trust thier ID as a leiurus, but the puffer is a happy and healthy puffer so whatever it is it's fine with me, maybe a baileyi without cirri? i dunno but thanks anyway

Really need a good pic of yours to be sure of ID.

Hi The Bruce.

Long time no see!
How is your beautiful Arothron?
Was it a Dogface?

The picture is of an unidentified "Target-puffer", and we simply do not know what species it is.
As you might know; the Target (or Leiurus) group is up for constant discussion, and the latest few revisions from Mr. Kottelat has made the chaos go from bad to worse...
In the past Ive prided myself of knowing a thing or two about Target-puffers, but after T. cambodgiensis (formerly T. barbatus) and T. turgidus was reclassified as Monotretus barbatus and Monotretus turgidus; I simply gave up...

Some time back we had a huge clash beetween several of our more than knowledgable members on this infamous issue.
Getting worked up over Target identification is IMHO an exercise in futility and totally unnecessary...

Myself;I strongly agree with our former member "RTR" on this issue;
Little good can come from speculating over the wheres and whys of the Target or Leiurus group.
It will more than probably go through a heavy revision the moment a biologist receives sufficient funds to do a scientific classification on a level beyond counting dots, spots & colouring.

Good luck with your Puffer!

A picture really would help here.

A quite funny thing with the "target group" is that many of the original leiurus specimens (the first ever reported taget puffers), which Bleeker (who decribed this species first and gave it its name) collected (they are now in Amsterdam if anyone wants to see them) do not even have a"target" or an "ocellus", but large polygonal spots on the entire back.

Just one of the many puffer secrets waiting to be revealed.

Getting worked up over Target identification is IMHO an exercise in futility and totally unnecessary...

As long as these ID attempts are referring to holotype material and descriptions they are more or less state of the art until we have a "puffer ID portable DNA analysis kit". So far most morphological traits used to create the different species can be observed by the aware hobbyist. What doesn't work and may lead to "mental confrontations" is comparing pictures to secondary literature, which is frequently erroneous or even worse unreliable pictures from the net.

This is why i said it was a stupid question but i havn't been on in a while and i thought maybe there was new light on the target group, well a picture would be great but i just can't get a clear one for some reason, I take clear pictures of the fahaka in the 120 every time with the same camera i just don't get it. Thats why i searched through everyones user gallerys to find one that looks like mine, and the one above is a bigger version of mine. Anyways thanks for your help everyone and hopefully soon(probably never) all this puffer confusion can cease, but it is kind of exciting having a puffer that i have no idea what it is. If anyone is in the sacramento area the next few weeks go to capitol aquarium in downtown and check out the other 4 that may still be there.

P.S. Thank you Woland my dogface is doing wonderfully, and has grown considerably since then, still my favorite