It’s hard not to love pufferfish. They have many great qualities that can make them an excellent candidate for a truly interactive pet fish. They also, unfortunately, have a “bite first, ask questions later” tendency that other fish and corals don’t really like. In this episode, we discuss a variety of saltwater puffer species that are available in the aquarium hobby, as well as care requirements, tank mates, reef-safeness, and more!

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Species mentioned in this episode:

• Porcupine puffer, diodon holocanthus


• Webbed burrfish, chilomycterus antillarum


• Stars and stripes puffer, arothron hispidus


• Dogface puffer, arothron nigropunctatus


• Mappa puffer, arothtron mappa


• Immaculate puffer, arothron immaculatus


• Narrowlined puffer, arothron manilensis


• Guineafowl puffer, arothron meleagris


• Masked puffer, arothron diadematus


• Birdbeak burrfish, cyclichthys orbicularis


• Milk spotted puffer, chelonodontops patoca


• Green spotted puffer, dichotomyctere nigroviridis


• Blue jewel puffer, canthigaster solandri


• Papuan toby, canthigaster papua


• Caribbean sharpnose puffer, canthigaster rostrata


• Valentini puffer, canthigaster valentini


• Leopard sharpnose puffer, canthigaster leoparda


• Goldface toby, canthigaster jamestyleri

Sources referenced in this episode

1. Stump, E. Et al. Global conservation status of marine pufferfishes
(Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae). Global Ecology and Restoration
14, (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00388

2. Gladstone, W. The courtship and spawning behaviors ofCanthigaster
valentini (Tetraodontidae). Environ Biol Fish 20, 255–261 (1987).
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00005296

3. Zhu, H., Sonoyama, T., Yamada, M., Gao, W., Tatsuno, R., Takatani, T.,
& Arakawa, O. (2020). Co-Occurrence of Tetrodotoxin and Saxitoxins
and Their Intra-Body Distribution in the Pufferfish Canthigaster
valentini. Toxins, 12(7), 436. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins12070436

4. Large Saltwater Pufferfish for Big Tanks. Hobbist Tropical Fish Magazine
by Mark Denaro, https://www.tfhmagazine.com/articles/saltwater/large-saltwater-pufferfish-for-big-tanks

5. Fishbase.se Web link: https://fishbase.se/Nomenclature/ScientificNameSearchList.php?crit1_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynGenus&crit1_fieldtype=CHAR&crit1_operator=EQUAL&crit1_value=Canthigaster&crit2_fieldname=SYNONYMS.SynSpecies&crit2_fieldtype=CHAR&crit2_operator=CONTAINS&crit2_value=&typesearch=simple&group=summary&backstep=-2&sortby=sciname

6. National Aquarium. https://aqua.org/explore/animals/striped-burrfish

7. Palacios, M. M., Muñoz, C. G., & Zapata, F. A. (2014). Fish corallivory on
a pocilloporid reef and experimental coral responses to predation.
Coral Reefs, 33(3), 625–636. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-014-1173-y

8. Moura, R. D., & Castro, R. M. (2002). Revision of Atlantic sharpnose
pufferfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae: Canthigaster) with
description of three new species. PROCEEDINGS-BIOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 115(1), 32-50.