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Hi folks.
I've got a pair of what I was told are figure 8 puffers.

But after looking at various web sites photos. I see this is not the case.

The closest I've seen is the Ceylon Puffer on www.pufferfish.co.uk.
But their Ceylon puffer looks different to the species on this web site! So I'm a tad confused.

Even using Googles Image search showed me that a lot of people are mis-identifying these creatures!

So can some kind and helpful person help me id my little fishes!

[link]
http://mytriops.com/fish/puffers.jpg
[/link]

Thanks.



Stuart Halliday
http://mytriops.com/
200 Million Years in the Making.

Your link doesn't work. It says error.

You have to cut and paste to see it. But I see the pictures.

I looked at some pictures of figure 8 puffers and to me, they look like you pics. In your picture on the right, it looks like the pattern on its back is light, but it looks like the figure 8's pattern.

*Kristin*

That's a tough one. They do look closest to young ceylon puffers but ceylon puffers aren't very common and normally what looks like a ceylon is actually an oddly marked figure eight or green spotted puffer. You might have to ask a puffer specific forum to ID that one but it definitely matches some ceylon pics. I can't say for certain though and it could still be a figure eight. Unfortunately while the figure eight needs lightly brackish water somewhere around 1.008sg the ceylon needs nearly full marine waters which would put the sg somewhere around 1.020. Quite a difference. Either way you have a brackish puffer and should be adding at least some marine salt to their water and measuring it with a hydrometer or refractometer.

They also will need to be fed snails several times a week to keep their beaks worn down. Ceylon puffers should be fed a wide variety of foods with nearly all of it being frozen or live. You probably won't get them to eat any dried foods anyway. They prefer inverts like shrimp, snails, krill, clams, and crabs. They'll probably also eat frozen bloodworms and squid which are easy to get.