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Home › Sea Wildlife Facts › Marine Species › Vertebrates › Pufferfish

Interesting Facts about Puffer Fishes

[Phylum: Chordata] [Class: Actinopterygii] [Order: Tetraodontiformes] [Family: Tetraodontidae]

Worldwide, there are about two hundred different species of pufferfishes that are distributed across 28 genera in the family Tetraodontidae fish.

This section contains fun facts about puffer fish fish (marine and freshwater puffers), with interesting information that spotlights where they live, what they eat, and how they reproduce.

Pufferfish Geographical Range and Habitats

A strong preference for life near coral reefs in tropical and subtropical oceans means the best places to find marine puffer fish species are:

• Indo-Pacific regions (e.g. the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand)
• The Caribbean Sea
• The Red Sea
• Some parts of the Atlantic Ocean

In general, they tend to flourish better in shallow shoreline seagrass beds and near coastal rocky substrates.

Some pufferfishes can also tolerate brackish water environments, and others spend their lives exclusively in fresh water ecosystems.

For example, the genus Colomesus and Tetraodon are known to inhabit some lakes and rivers in Africa, in tropical South America, and certain areas of Southeast Asia.

Pufferfish Characteristics and Behaviour

It's fair to say the most famous characteristic of all pufferfishes is being able to inflate their body. They can ingest water (or air) to become a bloated balloon shaped sphere.

Hence, combined with sharp prickles on the outside, an inflated puffer with raised spines is much more difficult for puffer fish predators to swallow (e.g. common octopuses and sea snakes).

Also, many of the species contain a powerful nerve poison called tetrodotoxin, usually contained in the liver, skin, and internal organs.

Here's the thing:

Like their close relatives porcupinefishes (Diodontidae), both species have fused teeth inside the mouth that create a beak-like structure.

But, puffers have four (4) fused teeth (2 more than porcupinefish) that they use to crush hard prey (e.g. shellfish).

Even when it's not inflated, the body shape is rounded and they do not have scales. As a consequence, pufferfish move slowly and tend to be somewhat cumbersome swimmers.

How Big Do Pufferfish Get?

Most of the pufferfish species use bright body colouration as a warning of their toxicity, and many of them are solitary creatures and quite territorial. In fact, the males are known for guarding their feeding areas and nesting sites.

The smallest puffer fish is the dwarf puffer (Carinotetraodon travancoricus) which rarely grows more than three (3) centimetres long.

By comparison, the giant freshwater pufferfish (Tetraodon MBU) is one of the biggest in the species and fully grown adults can measure up to sixty five (65) centimetres long (25 inches).

Pro Tip: Being called a puffer fish is not one of the most inappropriate fish names used in marine biology. In fact, it has a defencive response of puffing itself up to three times its normal size when it feels threatened. Thus, being able to suck in huge amounts of water to temporarily increase their size is why their common names also include the balloonfish, blowfish, and globe fish.

What Do Pufferfish Eat?

Most of the pufferfish species with the scientific name Tetraodontidae are carnivorous, meaning they feed mostly on hard-shelled invertebrates, including:

• Barnacles
• Clams
• Crabs
• Detritus matter
• Mussels
• Sea snails
• Sea urchins
• Shrimp
• Small aquatic crustaceans
• Small fish (not common)
• Worms

Some of the colourful reef specimens also supplement their daily diet by grazing on various types of plant matter, such as algae, coral polyps, and sea sponges.

Different Types of Puffer Fish

How Do Pufferfishes Reproduce?

Even though the reproductive behaviours of puffer fish vary by species, the courtship and mating rituals share some common characteristics. For example, most pufferfish reproduce through a process of external fertilisation.

During the mating season, males can be seen courting females by swimming around them or giving them gentle nudges.

By and large, the male will lead his female to a suitable spawning site, which is usually open sand or a sheltered location.

In case you were wondering...

When spawning occurs, a female lays her spherical "sticky" eggs directly into the open water or onto a suitable substrate, such as plants or rocks. The male attempts to fertilise them by scattering his sperm over them.

Parental care tends to vary according to different species. Even though some exhibit no parental care whatsoever, abandoning the eggs to develop on their own, others will guard their eggs until they hatch.

Hatching usually takes place within a few days, slightly longer if the water temperature fails to warm up. Puffer fish larvae are minute and planktonic, meaning they drift in the water column until they have grown big enough to find a suitable place to settle down.

Threats and Predators

Pufferfish are not aggressive towards humans. In fact, they tend to be quite friendly with scuba divers who like to observe their comical swimming actions and large beady eyes - which can actually move independently of each other.

In the wild, pufferfishes have many natural predators, especially groupers, sharks, Mahi Mahi (dolphin fish), large tuna fish, and even some marine mammals.

Apart from that, some of the worst human-induced threats to their survival include:

• Climate change (resulting in varying degrees of coral bleaching).
• Overfishing (particularly in countries where pufferfish (fugu) is considered a culinary delicacy).
• Underwater garbage pollution.
• Habitat degradation and destruction (e.g. mangrove clearance for aquaculture).

Pro Tips: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species assessed many of the pufferfish family as of "Least Concern" (LC). But, they list the Malabar Pufferfish (Carinotetraodon travancoricus) as "Vulnerable" (VU) and the Japanese Pufferfish (Takifugu rubripes) as "Near Threatened" (NT).

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