Pea puffer or something else?

Coryking · 2026-10-06T04:45:44-0500

I've had these three pea puffers for about a year now and I'm unsure if this one is a pea puffer or something else.

It has the black underbelly similar to a male pea puffer but the marking of it's body are completely different to pea and imitator puffers. Its scale colour is more yellow then my other puffers too. It's about three times as large as my other two puffers pretty much the same size as a harlequin rasbora. It does shoo off the other puffers when they get too near but doesn't bother the other fish. Not sure if it is a male pea puffer with some mutation changing it's pattern or some other puffer.

Apologises for the poor photo quality, they are a pain to photograph. Ones of my other pea puffer just to compare them.

ohhfishhh · 2026-10-06T07:23:06-0500

Hard to say from these photos. A fish that's about three times the size of your other two, with different markings and a yellower body, makes me wonder if it's a different puffer species that got sold as a pea puffer. That happens a fair amount with small puffers. Can you post a clear side-on shot, or a short video? Also, how big is it in inches, and what are your water parameters? If it is a different species, it may have different needs, and it's worth knowing before it gets much bigger.

Coryking · 2026-10-06T11:17:38-0500

ohhfishhh said:
Hard to say from these photos. A fish that's about three times the size of your other two, with different markings and a yellower body, makes me wonder if it's a different puffer species that got sold as a pea puffer. That happens a fair amount with small puffers. Can you post a clear side-on shot, or a short video? Also, how big is it in inches, and what are your water parameters? If it is a different species, it may have different needs, and it's worth knowing before it gets much bigger.

Thank you for the reply.
It's about 5cm long. I don't believe it will grow any more as I haven't seen any of the puffers grow for quite a bit of time. my ph is 7.2. It chases the pea puffersaway when they get to near it but other then that it really isn't any different in terms of behaviour.

I've attached more photos. Apologies again for the quality they are a nightmare to photograph