The Porcupine Puffer's Diet

The porcupine puffer (Diodon holocanthus) is a popular fish for home aquariums, and is remarkably easy to take care of. They range in color from tan and yellow to gray and black, and often have spotting. As a blowfish, they puff themselves full of water to expand when frightened or stressed. The porcupine puffer earned its name from the sharp, poisonous spikes that prickle on the skin of the puffer when he expands. Porcupine puffers, like all puffer fish, require a special diet.

  1. Identification

    • Porcupine puffer fish are classified as diodontidae because they possess four teeth fused into two plates, forming a beak similar to a parrot's. They live in warm ocean waters and require large saltwater aquariums. They grow, on average, to a length of 12 inches, and require feeding throughout the day in small amounts.

    Diet in the Wild

    • Porcupine puffer fish are broad omnivores, but eat a primarily meat diet. They use their large teeth to crack mussels, shrimp and crabs. They eat small snails and fish, and are often messy, leaving remains to be eaten by scavanger fish. Porcupine puffers also graze on algae, but are primarily aggressive predators.

    Diet in Captivity

    • In captivity, it is important to feed porcupine puffers a wide variety of many different live and frozen meaty foods. Frozen foods can include prawn, bloodworms, blackworms and crab meat. Live foods can include snails, shrimps, crabs and earthworms. It is recommended that you avoid feeding them large quantities of live fish as these can cause liver problems. Porcupine puffers do not survive well eating flake or artificial fish foods.

    Maintaining Tooth Wear

    • Like all puffer fish, porcupine puffers require a special diet for their dentistry. This diet must include live hard-shelled shrimp. Because the teeth of the porcupine puffer are continuously growing, they need to be worn down through gnawing on shrimp. A porcupine puffer could break a tooth if it does not eat hard-shelled shrimp in captivity.

    Other Suggestions

    • A porcupine puffer is an aggressive fish and will attack other fish in aquariums and eat non-vertebrates. Porcupine puffers gained their name from the large spines that stand erect when frightened puffers try to scare off predators; avoid contact with the spines, as they will break through human skin and be painful. Porcupine puffer meat, when eaten, is fatally poisonous unless served by a trained professional.