how to tell the sex of this fish when i go to store..

The only ways to sex that I can remember are that the males have little wrinkles behind their eyes, the wrinkles are kinda irridescent. Also the females have white bellies/throats but the males have yellow bellies/throats. Have you gone to dwarfpuffers.com yet? They have pics and there is a section for sexing the puffers. I'll try and find pics on the web, too for reference.

I read that the males have a line on their belly. Just my .02

Here is a male. Notice the wrinkles directly behind his eye and his yellow belly. Males are also more olive in color and their splotches are not as black, whereas females are more brightly colored and their splotches are more defined and black.






Here's a female in the front. See how she has a whiter belly/more defined, black splotches?





It's harder to figure out which ones are female, so just use deductive reasoning. Whichever ones don't have wrinkles behind their eyes or yellow bellies are females. Hope this helps. Try and buy puffers that are over 1/2" in size, they'll be closer to maturity and will be easier to tell apart.

kamikaze_fish said:

I read that the males have a line on their belly. Just my .02

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I've read that too, although I never saw it on my male lol. When I got my dp's, I asked the pet store associate who netted them and had them in the specimen container to let me closely inspect the puffers by holding the container and looking at the the undersides of the puffers. Just ask whoever helps catch them at the store to let you look at them before they bag them.

also make sure they are healthy. sick or weak fish rarely show their true colors, which would leave both methods of ID useless.

Females= White bellies
Males= Brownish line on the belly going from its throat to its tail and wrinkles behind the eyes.

There is a bio-spira for freshwater. I haven't tried this specific brand but something exactly the same with a different name. These live bacteria cultures are 30.00 usually for a few ounces (which you will get good use out of) and have to be refridgerated when not in use. This stuff is like liquid gold, it's awesome.

There is also established media from another tank. I would set up the tank, add a source of ammonia, test for a day or two if adding established media and then add the fishy. If you can't find either(biospira non-refrigerated is mostly useless) then a fishless cycle is in order.