|
SADDLED PUFFER FACTS |
Description
The Saddled Puffer is a typical pufferfish shape. It has a white background color and four saddle shaped blotches - two across the body, one on the back of the head just behind the eyes, and one on the tail stem. The snout is grey brown with pattern of darker stripes. The sides have small brown or yellowish spots. The tail is yellowish.
Other Names
Valentinni's sharpnose puffer
Size
length to 10cm
Habitat
carol lagoons, seaward reefs, coastal reefs at depths from 1m to 55m. Forms shoals of 10-100 or more. Often swims with the Mimic Leatherjacket or Filefish (Paraluteres prionurus) which mimics the Saddled Puffer for protection from predators.
Food
Feeds on algae, tunicates. Also eats corals, bryozoans, echinoderms, molluscs.
Breeding
During spawning season, males spawn with a different female each day
Range
The Saddled Puffer is found throughout the Indo-Pacific. In Australia it is found around offshore islands of north-western coast of Western Australia and from northern coast of Queensland to southern New South Wales.
Classification
| Class: | Actinopterygii | | Order: | Tetraodontiformes | | Family: | Tetraodontidae | | Genus: | Canthigaster | | Species: | valentini | | Common Name: | Saddled Puffer |
Relatives in same Genus
Clown Toby (C. callisterna)
|
|
