Pufferfish, also called fugu, swellfish, globefish, blowfish, is the second-most poisonous invertebrates after the golden poison frog. Internal organs of the pufferfish such as lungs and skin are highly toxic parts of their body. It is an expensive, delicious fish and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know which part of the fish is safe to eat. There are over 120 species of pufferfish around the world.
They live in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but few are found in freshwater too. They are generally small to medium size. Only some can reach a length of 100 cm. They are long, tapered bodies with bulbous heads, prominent lips and huge stomachs. They are scaleless fish as well as their skins are rough and spiky. Their teeth are fused to create a beak-like structure for the shearing of corals and invertebrates. They are carnivores. The fish eat corals, sponges, sea urchins, and other echinoderms. They crush and grind up their prey with their broad, fused teeth.
Puffer Analysis
Pufferfish are famous for their inflatability. When they get threat by their predators, they puff up thrice the times of their original size. When they are puffed up, they take a massive amount of air and water inside them to make themselves look round. This makes them look giant and difficult to eat. They also have sharp spikes which act as needles to keep their predator away. They can move their eyes independently of each other. That they can see a view at one time to keep themselves safe from predators. In one pufferfish, there is enough toxin to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.
If you think Octopus is the only chameleon of the sea, you might not know about the pufferfish. Pufferfish camouflages by changing their color according to their environment around them. They change their color to a lighter or darker shade to match with their surrounding and their left eye and right eye help them to look in different directions which mean they can look at two things at the same time. These two things act as defense mechanisms to protect them from predators by seeing them from different directions or by puff up themselves. They also seem like moody fishes.
Puffers have a wide range of color changes depending on their mood and time of day. For example, Dwarfs look washed out in the morning when they are waking up and color up throughout the day. They get darker when stressed or angry. They also can get paler when they are hungry. Pufferfish are found in different colors such as grey, yellow, blue, white, and brown. They are difficult to identify when they are not inflated.
Pufferfish That Change Color
Mappa Pufferfish:
Mappa Pufferfish is known as Arothron Puffer, Scribbled Puffer, Scribbled Pufferfish, Scribbled Toadfish, which belong to the family of Tetraodontidae. It is medium-sized fish that grows up to 65 cm long. It has a round-shaped body with no scale, pelvic fin, and lateral line. The fish has white-colored skin with spots of black, brown strips. Its snout is short with two pairs of nostrils, and its mouth consists of four teeth.
Mappa Pufferfish contains extremely toxic tetrodotoxin. This toxic protects the pufferfish from predators. They are found in tropical and subtropical waters from the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific Ocean. They are found near to shelter over deep drop-offs in clear water lagoons and sheltered reefs. The fish feed on benthic invertebrates such as microorganisms like bacteria and fungi as well as larger invertebrates such as crustaceans and polychaetes, sponges, and algae. Toxic mucus is spread all over the body, and if the skin or flesh has been eaten, it could be dreadful to humans.
This Mappa pufferfish changes its color to match their surroundings so that their predator cannot see them and attack them. The factor is how they use their body color as a defense mechanism against their enemy. It can inflate its body to almost twice its size when threatened or alarmed to discourage others from trying to eat it. They need a 300 gallon or larger fish aquarium with a good protein skimmer to live. It does not eat other fishes and puffers. It eats invertebrates that are found in a reef tank, corals, and even aquarium pieces of equipment. They need various meat-based foods such as squid, krill, clams, and hard-shelled shrimp, which help them to wear down their ever-growing teeth.
Fahaka Pufferfish
Fahaka fish is known as Tetraodon lineatus. The puffer is an aggressive, fast-growing fish. They are not only extravagant in their appearance but also have an incredible type of behavior. Sometimes fish of this group is referred to as “dogs” because the Fahaka Pufferfish fully justifies this nickname. They become most attached to their owner that they waited for his or her owner to go to them and play with them. Another interesting fact of Fahaka fish is that they know ways to bury themselves within the sand so that only two large eyes remain seeable. They are a maximum of 45 cm long.
They require temperatures of 24-26 degrees and a pH of 7.0-8.0. The Fahaka Pufferfish has a bulbous, pear-shaped body. Two large protruding eyes are distinguished those rotate independently in any direction. A Fahaka Puffer will not endure other fishes within its space in the aquarium. It feeds on meat-based frozen foods includes cockles, cockle-in-shell, mussels, krill, prawns, crayfish tails, crab legs. It also eats snails. So, do not put snail with Fahaka pufferfish if you want your snail to be alive! Hard-shelled snail foods should be given daily to make their teeth stronger. They are found within the Nile, Chad basin, Niger, Volta, Gambia, Geba and Senegal Rivers, and Lake Turkana.
Description
The color of the upper part of the body of the Fahaka Pufferfish is brown with longitudinal curving with white or yellow stripes, and their abdomen and tail are yellow. The body color of fish is variable and depends on many factors like age, mood, conditions within the aquarium. Fahaka fish changes their color according to their choice and surrounding. They show their different mood swings not only by changing the color of the body but also the color of the eyes. The fish also change their body color to cover themselves from a predator if they stay with any in the aquarium. They also camouflage themselves as the same color as rock and some plants inside the aquarium. They appear to be very vibrant and exquisite when there’s enough bright light, and they become dark when it is in low-light.
Porcupine Pufferfish
Porcupine Puffer is known as the Porcupinefish. They are found in an exceedingly choice of habitats like rich, shallow reefs and open areas with rocky or soft, muddy substrates. Their spiny appendages cover all over their body. Their teeth are like fused beak structure. The Porcupine Puffer does not have pelvic fins, but they typically learned to use the pectoral fins to maneuver. These fish are slow-moving and easy for divers to catch, making them readily available for purchase and comparatively inexpensive compared to most other seafood. They require a temperature of 23-27 degrees. The fish will handle fluctuations in pH, temperature, and salinity better than much other fish, and that they do not persist fasting as often in response to fret.
They will be very aggressive as they bite other aquatic fishes to maneuver from their territory and leave a circular mark there. The fish eat invertebrates found in an exceedingly reef aquarium and want various meat-based diets like squid, krill, clams, and hard-shelled shrimp that help them to touch upon their ever-growing teeth. Once they feel threatened by their predator, they inflate their body to almost twice its regular size so that they are not eatable and that they even have sharp spikes on the surface of their body. Some parts of the flesh are poisonous, so they cannot be digested.
Habits
Porcupine puffers create most waste, so you have to clean your water again and again. You can keep the water cleaner by removing any uneaten food and any visible waste by employing a tank vacuum to suck it out. You should give Iodine supplements to your puffer’s thyroid healthy as Porcupine puffers are liable to developing deficiencies or thyroid issues if they do not get proper levels of trace elements found in seawater.
Porcupine Puffer changes its color depending on their mood. If they’re in a jolly mood, they show vibrant colors, and if in an angry, dull, or hungry mood, they become dark colors. They also change their color in keeping with the place they board so, it becomes difficult to determine them, and they protect themselves from the enemy. In this way, they use their color for their defense action.
Some species of pufferfish are considered vulnerable to pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing, but most populations are considered stable.
