All fish / Tetraodontidae

Starry Puffer

Arothron stellatus

Also known as stars and stripes puffer, star puffer, stellate puffer, starry pufferfish, giant star puffer, starry toadfish, blackspotted blowfish, ปลาปักเป้าลายจุด, buntal bintang, モヨウフグ, 星斑叉鼻鲀, 星点东方鲀

Juveniles are orange or yellow with dark stripes, and adults turn pale grey or white with many small black spots. It is one of the largest pufferfish, kept by public aquariums and keen hobbyists for its personality and tameness.

Care at a glance

Care level

Hard

Temperament

Semi

Adult size

60 cm

Temperature

24 to 28 °C

pH

8.1 to 8.4

Smallest tank

2000 litres

Keep as

Keep singly

Diet

Carnivore: shellfish, crab, prawn, squid, snails and other hard-shelled foods

Swims

Middle of the tank

Lifespan

10 to 15 years

Water

Marine (saltwater)

Wild range

Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, from East Africa to the Pacific islands

Breeding

It spawns in the open sea and has not been bred in home aquaria. All specimens in the trade are wild-caught.

Good to know

Adults can pass 1 m in length, so this fish needs a very large system, and it will eat crustaceans and invertebrates and nip slow tankmates. Its flesh is highly toxic, and its beak needs hard foods to stop it overgrowing.