Porcupine Fish

The porcupine puffer fish, as the name suggests, has body covered with spines to protect it from its predators. It has a heavier spine and teeth fused together as a single row. Let us know more about this aquatic creature in detail.

Porcupine Fish Facts and Information
The porcupine or the blowfish or balloon fish, as it is also known as, are medium size fish that have body like a mini baseball bat. These fish are found in warm water oceans all around the world. One of the unique adaptations of this fish is its characteristic of inflating its body to almost double its size. They swallow water or air and get inflated into a perfect round, similar to a ball or a balloon. This is one of its natural mechanism to keep predators at bay. The body of this fish is covered with long sharp spines that remain flat when the body is deflated. When the fish inflates its body, these spines stand out and seem like hundreds of needles protruding from the body. Hence, this fish is aptly known as the porcupine fish. Once the fish inflates its body, it is simply impossible for its predator to attack it. Peculiarly, if a predator gobbles up the fish before it gets time to inflate its body; it still inflates itself in the mouth of the predator, which results in the death of the two!

Their diet usually consists of sea jellies and mollusks. These fish hunt at night when they move stealthily to find their prey. They also have a natural tendency to spurt jets of water on their prey. If kept in an aquarium, they can spurt water on other objects when they are hungry. These fish also eat crabs, oysters, clams and snails as they have teeth and jaw modified to crush the hard shells of their prey. Their reproduction method is also very distinct. The male and the female fish mate in the open ocean, or sometime a group of males mate with a single female. The eggs fertilized at this time, drift to the surface of the ocean due to currents. When the eggs hatch, the larvae floats on the surface. Only when the larvae transforms into a small fish, it goes to the bottom of the ocean, in the reef.

• Family: Diodontidae
• Order: Tetraodontiformes
• Scientific name: Diodon hystrix
• These are the non-threatened species of fish in the world.
• These fish fall into nocturnal variety of fish.
• Whale, shark and large tuna are the predators of porcupine fish.
• They are poor swimmers and cannot move swiftly in the water.
• Mollusks are the favorite prey and food of this fish.
• Some species of this fish also have venomous spines.
• These fish are also sometimes used as souvenirs in certain places.

Porcupine or the blowfish can be kept as a pet. After reading the above information and facts, we can unanimously agree that the porcupine fish is one of the most interesting and unique aquatic creature found in the world!