Puffer ID help please

[Snausy]

Do you think my dogface puffer:

is the same type of dogface as this puffer?:

I ask because the latter is advertised as a "Yellow-throat" dogface and mine wasn't but they look very alike. Both are advertised as "Arothron nigropunctatus"

The fist puffer is very young and only 3"(and a bit chunky, I feed him well) and the second one is about 4.5"...would this make a big difference in color or are they just different color morphs altogether.

Anyone have a dogface that looked like mine at 3" but changed colors while in your tank as it grew older?

 

[AquaKnight]

It is pretty much just a color morph that is the sole variation between the two. Yours will likely gain a bit more 'yellowish' in it's color, but won't have full yellow coloration like that "yellow-throat' or a golden puffer.

 

[reefer334]

Dogface puffers have lots of different colors even all black.

 

[AquaKnight]

Correction on my behalf, the Golden Puffer is a Arothron meleagris, not a nigropunctatus. The meleagris also include black variations. The only morph for the nigropunctatus is indeed the yellow patches on the bottom of the puffer.

 

[LisaD]

yours doesn't look so different from the LA puffer, if you allow for different lighting...