Care
This large, characterfulpufferfish species is known from lagoons, coastal bays, and inner reef flatswhere there are sandy stretches with rubble and sparse seagrass, at depths ofbetween 3 and 50 metres. Juveniles are often associated with weedy areas ofestuaries where there is ample cover for them to develop in relative safety.Adults are usually solitary and fairly territorial. They typically feed onvarious types of algae (including coralline), mollusks, crabs, tunicates,sponges, corals, zoanthids, tube worms, and echinoderms; feeding on hard preykeeps the beak from overgrowing. Therefore due to such eating habits,these fish are not suitable for keeping in a reef setting in the home aquarium.As Whitespotted Pufferfish tend to attain quite a size, a very large tank willbe needed to house an adult specimen. Despite its eventual size, this speciesis relatively gentle for a puffer, although it must still be considered asemi-aggressive fish. Keep only one per tank and not with any other pufferfish;ideally, tankmates will be of similar size and temperament. The aquarium shouldbe aquascaped with plenty of rockwork, with some large sized shelters, and anopen swimming space along the front. Filtration must be efficient to cope withthe voracious eating habits and large amounts of waste that these fish produce, yet watermovement should not be too vigorous. Be aware that large pufferfish arenotorious for biting through tubing, and even heaters, so it is worth thinkingvery carefully about where you place your equipment; do also always keep aclose eye on where the fish is when carrying out any maintenance in the tank.The general colouration of the Whitespotted Pufferfish is an overallgrey-brown, with the back, sides and caudal fin speckled with white spots. Thebelly area is marked with white stripes. These markings lend themselves to thealternative common name of the Stars and Stripes Puffer. As the fish mature,the white spots appear smaller in proportion to the rest of the fish. Whenfrightened, these fish can inflate themselves to more than twice their originalsize to deter predators. This defence mechanism is a last resort, and shouldnever be actively encouraged; it is particularly dangerous if the fish ingestsair instead of water. Kept in the right conditions, the Whitespotted Pufferwill become a real "˜pet fish"™ with bags of personality, soon learning torecognise its owner and beg for food. Just don"™t be tempted to feed directlyfrom your hand "“ always add food a safe distance away, or with tongs!
Feeding
Offer a varied diet consistingmainly of meaty items such as vitamin-enriched krill, prawns, cockle, mussel, whitebait,squid, and clam meat. Hard shelled foods such as cockle-in-shell and crab legs shouldbe given regularly to help keep the beak worn down. A decent amount of livingrock in the tank will also give the puffer lots of browsing opportunities whichwill also help to keep the beak in check.
Breeding
This species has not been bredin the home aquarium. Little is known about its reproductive habits other thanthe fact that the male fish digs a nest into the sandy substrate and entices afemale there to spawn.
