Fingerprint Puffer

Pre- Quarantined for 30 Days!

Canthigaster compressa

The Fingerprint Puffer is a lively fish adorned with a festive flurry of colorful spots and bars. Brilliant orange and turquoise spots and bars create a playful pattern as if confetti and streamers were scattered across a field. Beneath this colorful pattern is a body color divided by a stormy, olive gray dorsal half and a pearly white ventral half. The overall effect is an energetic coloration that suits the inquisitive and personable Fingerprint Puffer.

The Fingerprint Puffer belongs to the genus Canthigaster whose members are commonly called Sharp-nosed Puffers or Tobies. As such, the Fingerprint Puffer is also called Compressed Puffer. In the wild, the Fingerprint Puffer inhabits open sand slopes and rubble zones located in reef flats and sheltered lagoons. This fact sheds new insight to the seemingly ornamental coloration and pattering of the Fingerprint Puffer. The ideal setup for the Fingerprint Puffer is a 50 gallon or larger, fish-only aquarium aquascaped with live rock and rubble with easy access to large open areas. The Fingerprint Puffer may try to eat invertebrates that it can fit in its mouth, found in the aquarium using its fused beak-like teeth to crush open its prey.

The diet of the Fingerprint Puffer should include a variety of meaty food and vegetable matter. Offer squid, krill, clams, and hard shelled shrimp to help wear down their ever growing teeth.