The Puffer fish is also known as the blowfish, fugu, swellfish, and globefish. It is called the puffer fish because when it is threatened, it puffs up to about twice its normal size by gulping water. In this engorged state, the puffer fish can swim at only about half its normal speed.
There are about 100 species of puffer fish. Most puffer fish are found in sub-tropical and tropical marine waters (including coral reefs) in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Some puffers live in brackish and fresh water.
What Do Puffer Fish Eat?
In the ocean, the porcupine puffer feeds on mollusks (clams and squid) and echinoderms (long-spined sea urchin). In a tank, the puffer can eat live or frozen squid, shrimp, mussels, and all kinds of chopped up fish. Puffer fish crush and grind up their prey with their heavy, fused teeth.
What Are Some Characteristics of Their Appearances?
The puffer fish grows to a maximum length of twelve inches and is a pale brown color. It has black or brown spots scattered on its body and a fan-like dorsal fin. The puffer also has plate-sheath teeth that are solid and spines that are laid down, when it is not inflated.
How Do They Reproduce?
Early in the morning, one male and one female swim to the surface where eggs and sperm are released leading to be the eggs fertilized. Four days later, the eggs hatch releasing a round-bodied larva. After three months, the larva has transformed into a small porcupine fish.
Poison: Many parts of the blowfish (including the liver, muscles, skin, and ovaries) contain an extremely strong, paralyzing poison called tetrodoxin. This poison is about a thousand times deadlier than cyanide. There is no known antidote for this poison. Fugu (torafugu or fugu rubripes, Japanese puffer fish) is eaten in Japan, but is only cooked by specially-trained chefs who can minimize the amount of poison. Even so, many Japanese diners have died from eating this poisonous delicacy.
