Tiny SW puffer

[pipermurphy]

I just got back from one of my LFS's, as usual I went in there to buy $10.00 worth of 'stuff' and wound up putting $85.00 on the credit card.
Anyway to lead off I lent my SW fish ID book to a friend who is out of town, and I saw this cute tiny, little, itsy bitsy puffer, did I say cute? He(?) is about 1" long,triangle shape body, yellow tail, lower half is white and the top half is black with white vertical stripes.
The LFS told me the name (I forgot), and said he was reef friendly. Can anyone direct me to a website with fish id's so I know the name and what to best feed him?
Thanks again all.

 

[Natterjak]

Stars and Stripes puffer maybe? They have whitish bellies and white and dark stripes on their bodies.

Try this page: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/tetraodontpuffers.htm

 

[pipermurphy]

Maybe, the name sounded more "regal". Anyone have any SW ID sites?

 

[cmor1701d]

I usually look at the online retailers. They normally have photos to accompany the description.

liveaquaria.com
Saltwaterfish.com
anchofish.com

for starters.

HTH,

 

[steve-s]

http://fishbase.org

Cheers
Steve

 

[pipermurphy]

Thank you for your replies, after looking it is the juvenile Valentini puffer. I am now unsure if the LFS guy was blowing smoke up my #$$ by saying it was reef friendly. The sites say that this species is for a FO system & not good with shrimp. I have 5 cleaners and some smaller misc ones each at about $15 per. Should I take him back? It was my first fish purchase at this store and might be my last. Any ideas?

 

[dralarms]

He might have just miss identified it. Depends on his / her experiance. I'd say take it back with proper identification and judge from their reaction as to their intent.

 

[BONESTOCK]

Ummm....I've never heard of a puffer that's reef friendly.

 

[BillyZ]

puffer's, in general, are "Reef" friendly in that they won't hurt your corals, anenomes or most other fish (the non-agressive puffers that is) but no puffer is crab/snail/shrimp friendly... that's dinner for a puffer.

 

[pipermurphy]

I brought the puffer back to the LFS today. He started to go after a golden CBS that was bigger then him. I just didn't want to take the chance on losing my inverts so I traded him for a tiny cleaner shrimp. Lesson learned and thanks to all for your input, as usual you all helped out.