Tetraodon Pustulatus

they get to 14-16" pretty aggressive, more like a lineatus (fahaka) than a tetardon mbu. will eat anything. occurs in the cross river, sometimes venture into estuaries, but its a freshwater puffer.

pretty rare puffer

Make shure you get the real deal...they can look very simular to young fahaka's. Do a search on the forum I believe there's a topic on that on here as well.

Other than that Wes covered it.

Usually very expensive - expect to pay upwards of $300 US for one at any decent size. No one has a lot of breadth of experience, as they are quite rare. Mine is extremely aggressive and lives alone. I got him/her around 6" and is now around 9-10". They don't look anything like a fahaka, as fahakas have yellow stripes and pustulatus have red spotting. They eat just about anything. I feed mine live crawfish, snails, frozen/thawed clams and whole shrimp.

He is much worse in attitude than any other puffer I've owned, including mbu and fahakas. His teeth also grow faster than other puffers I've kept, for whatever freaky reason. Here's an old photo:

That is not a pustulatus. There are actually very few true ones out there. Most are expensive variations of the fahaka & will grow stripes as an adult, as the above pic.
See: Pustulatus

Pufferpunk;1626249; said:

That is not a pustulatus. There are actually very few true ones out there. Most are expensive variations of the fahaka & will grow stripes as an adult, as the above pic.
See: Pustulatus

Click to expand...

I've posted my thoughts on this before. their natural range does over lap so possibly hybridzation does occur, or it could be due to sexual dimorphism.

the 2 that i had, grew from a group of 15 pustulatus, looked all identical at a young age, collected and shipped from Oliver Lucanus-which said they came from the Cross river. One got much bigger, much faster, the other stayed around 6 inches. the larger one was over 12 inches. but it sure had a different pattern than the typical fahaka, all the ones that i've seen.

i've of course also received small fahakas in the past with red dots on them, that grew up to have stripes, like a typical fahaka, so i know what you mean. but usually didn't retain those spots past 4" total lenght. maybe James can share some updates on your speciemn and someone can post some pictures of adult fahaka for comparison to my large "x" fish.

Pufferpunk;1626249; said:

That is not a pustulatus. There are actually very few true ones out there. Most are expensive variations of the fahaka & will grow stripes as an adult, as the above pic.
See: Pustulatus

Click to expand...

Thanks for the vote of confidence

I've found that when kept on dark substrate, my puffer darkens quite a bit. On bare-bottom, his red is much more noticeable. At 9" easy, there is no indication of the striping that I consider normal on large fahakas. I'd love to see an authoritative guide to regional fahaka differences, but I've only heard passing references from individuals regarding this. The seller for my pustulatus confirmed Cross River as the collection location, so at least the location (if not the identification) is correct. Said seller has also seen more than possibly any other individual with regular on-line access, so I will stick with his ID until I see indisputable visual proof otherwise. In the end, I am happy with my fish, although I would prefer him to be as purported.

Wes, both of the puffers in your pics are pustulatus? I'd have guessed the spotted was a pustulatus, and the striped was a fahaka. Both are incredibly beautiful specimens. As you mentioned, perhaps the variety of color/pattern on pustulatus is dimorphism ... we just don't know enough about these puffers yet!

Did you read that link? Very scientific discussion on the differences--not just spots & stripes.