Looking For Positive ID on Puffer

[Def Leppard Hysteria]

We bought a puffer from The Wet Spot a couple of weeks ago. It was listed as a schoutedeni puffer on their sales sheet, but when they went to bag it up, they were convinced it was something else. We emailed each other back and forth about the puffer and ultimately agreed on the purchase and delivery of the puffer. We got an email from them today saying they sent some photos to a puffer expert and he thinks it is a duboisi puffer. So, now the confusion. Our puffer does not attempt to eat any of its tankmates, which consist of dozens of guppies (ranging from adult to new born fry). It has never buried itself in the sand substrate. It does eat baby self cloning crayfish with a fervor. Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday. I still think it is a schoutedeni puffer, but what are your thoughts?

 

[lobowind]

We bought a puffer from The Wet Spot a couple of weeks ago. It was listed as a schoutedeni puffer on their sales sheet, but when they went to bag it up, they were convinced it was something else. We emailed each other back and forth about the puffer and ultimately agreed on the purchase and delivery of the puffer. We got an email from them today saying they sent some photos to a puffer expert and he thinks it is a duboisi puffer. So, now the confusion. Our puffer does not attempt to eat any of its tankmates, which consist of dozens of guppies (ranging from adult to new born fry). It has never buried itself in the sand substrate. It does eat baby self cloning crayfish with a fervor. Here are a couple of photos I took yesterday. I still think it is a schoutedeni puffer, but what are your thoughts?

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Looks like a schoutedeni to me. The mouth isn't as upturned as a douboisi would have.

 

[magpie]

Looks like one to me, too. I am not an expert on puffers at all, however - my Schoutedeni is the only puffer I've owned.

Kind of strange though, because i got my Schoutedeni from them. But I also trust them. Why were they questioning themselves, did they say?

 

[Def Leppard Hysteria]

Looks like one to me, too. I am not an expert on puffers at all, however - my Schoutedeni is the only puffer I've owned.

Kind of strange though, because i got my Schoutedeni from them. But I also trust them. Why were they questioning themselves, did they say?

They just sent us a photo of the puffer right when they bagged it up for shipment to us. They thought it looked different than the rest of the batch they got in at the same time. It wasn't that great of a photo, but I thought it was a schoutedeni puffer from that very first pic.

Then they showed the photo of our puffer to their puffer guru and he state that it's a duboisi. But, judging by interaction with tankmates and behavior (cruising around the tank and never burying itself in the sand), I'm a firm believer in it being a schoutedeni. Just thought I'd post here and see if anyone had any experiences with the two different species, since they seem to have two separate behaviors.

 

[magpie]

I searched for Duboisi and they do look similar, but adult Duboisis definitely have a different head/face shape, and they get larger. I guess time will tell?

Like you mentioned, yours isn't in the sand nor killing anyone so maybe it is a Schoutedeni. It must be a little different than the others they had, though or they wouldn't have questioned it.

Keep us updated for sure.

 

[lobowind]

The Ebert book has a picture of a Duboisi, and the mouth is much more upturned.