Redeye Puffer

About

Found in the slow-moving rivers, backwaters, and standing freshwaters of Indochina, Malaysia, and Indonesia, this small puffer, Carinotetraodon lorteti, is one of the more intriguing freshwater puffers available to hobbyists. It tops out somewhere between one and a half and two and a half inches, making it compact even by puffer standards, but don't let the size fool you. The personality is fully puffer-sized. One of the most fascinating things about this species is its ability to shift coloration depending on its surroundings, which can make it tricky to identify at first glance. Adding to the confusion, males and females look so different from each other that early naturalists sometimes described them as entirely separate species. In the wild it hunts zooplankton, mollusks, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, and that same diet needs to be reflected in captivity with appropriately hard-shelled foods to keep those ever-growing teeth worn down. Like most puffers, it can be nippy toward tankmates and is generally best kept with careful species selection or in a species-only setup. The intermediate care rating reflects these social quirks more than any particular water chemistry demands. With good care this species can live eight to ten years, which is a genuinely impressive run for a fish this small.