You will get to see so many kinds of Pufferfish diving in Thailand especially when you dive in Pattaya! So our dive team would like to share 5 facts about Pufferfish you probably didn’t know!
Fact 1: Puffer Fish can expand to 3x Their original Size
When threatened, Pufferfish ‘puff’ up to make themselves up to three times larger this is because they are slow moving so to avoid been eaten they take into their stomachs and bloat themselves making it harder to eat them. Also, some puffer fish have spines which make them even harder to swallow.
Fact 2: There are more than 100 species of pufferfish.
There are in fact about 120 species of Pufferfish. Also known by many nicknames such as puffers, balloonfish, Blowfish, etc. The porcupinefish, however, is not actually a puffer and belongs to a different family.
Fact 3: They can grow up to nearly four feet long.
The largest of the Pufferfish is a stellate puffer fish, also known as a Giant Starry Puffer. These puffer fish can grow to a massive 47 inches long! By contrast,
The smallest puffer fish is tiny and less than an inch long! These are dwarf Puffers
Fact 4: Pufferfish are among the most poisonous animals on earth.
Pufferfish can be deadly to the touch, lucky as divers never touch aquatic life because when these fish get stressed and inflate, tetrodotoxin or TTX, is excreted from their skin. This chemical is 100 times more toxic than cyanide!
Fact 5: Pufferfish have four teeth.
Pufferfish belong to the family of fish known as Tetraodontidae. Derived from two Greek words. Tetra meaning ‘four’ and ‘odous’ meaning ‘tooth’.
So pufferfish have four teeth.2 on the upper gum and 2 on the lower gum. both fused to look like one large tooth, making pufferfish seem like they have beaks.
