THE STEINHART AQUARIUM - Gulf of Guinea Science ...

Ornate Cowfish
Aracana ornate (Aracanidae)
Deepwater Boxfishes
Distribution: Eastern Indian Ocean, southern
coast of Australia.
Habitat: Shallow tropical seas under 20 m.
Appearance: Brownish gold background with
a handsome pattern of white stripes and spots.
Max size: 15 cm.
Diet: Small benthic crustaceans, algae.
Remarks: Rare (and expensive) in the
Aquarium trade.
Though the cowfish moves slowly, it requires
surprisingly little thrust as water flows over
its body very efficiently. The fish is so good at
turning and balancing that engineers modeled
a submarine after it!!
Papuan Toby aka Spotted Sharpnose Puffer
Canthigaster papua (Tetradontidae)
Pufferfish
Distribution: Indo-Pacific: Philippines,
Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia.
Habitat: Various reef habitats from fringing
reefs to lagoons, patch reefs, and deeper
seaward reefs to 35 m.
Appearance: Brown overall with blue lines on the
back, forehead, and snout; blue spots on sides;
black spot at base of dorsal fin. Max. size: 10 cm.
Diet: Mostly algae, but also take a variety of
small, benthic invertebrates. Some may nip off
the tips of small-polyped stony corals and soft
corals with their strong, fused teeth.
Reproduction and Development: Haremic,
with males establishing territories. Males
posture and display to discourage conspecific
competitors, a ritual that can become violent
and result in serious injury.
Remarks: Tobies, both in the wild and the
aquarium, need hard calcareous material
to bite on to wear down their teeth, which
otherwise continue to grow and may interfere
with regular feeding.
Like all members of its family, tobies are
able inflate themselves to a prickly ball that
discourages predators.
Amazon Pufferfish
Colomesus asellus (Tetradontidae)
Pufferfish
Distribution: Peru, Colombia, Brazil. The
California Academy of Sciences
195
Amazon Basin.
Habitat: Mostly warm freshwater and coastal
streams.
Appearance: Max size: 7.5 cm.
Diet: An active hunter, especially of snails.
Reproduction: Pairs breed during the wet
season, spawning in rivers. Small eggs are
scattered on the substrate and hatched larvae
are carried downstream.
Mortality/Longevity: Life span: 10+ years.
Remarks: Continuous growth of teeth keeps
these fish ready for their crunchy and abrasive
diet of crustaceans and snails. In captivity,
these puffers should have a daily dose of snails
to prevent beak overgrowth.
These active and curious little fish need a
complexly decorated aquarium to explore, or
like big cats in a barren cage, they will be found
“pacing” back and forth along the aquarium
glass.
Like other puffers, can inflate themselves when
threatened, presenting a much larger and spineladen
body to suddenly disheartened predators.
Many pufferfishes are highly toxic. C. asellus
produces saixitoxin, the same neurotoxin
produced by marine dinoflagellates such
as Gymnodinium, source of the red tides off
the California coast. Ingestion of saxitoxin
by humans, usually through ingestion of
contaminated shellfish, can produce potentially
lethal paralytic shellfish poisoning.
CLASS SARCOPTERYGII
(LOBE-FINNED FISHES)
ORDER COELACANTHIFORMES
(COELACANTHS)
Coelacanth (specimen)
Latimeria chalumnae (Latimeriidae)
Coelacanths
Distribution: Western Indian Ocean; off coasts
of Comoros Islands, Kenya, Mozambique,
Madagascar, South Africa.
Habitat: By day, along steep rocky shore,
sheltered in caves with as many as 13
conspecifics in a single cave at depths 100–
700 m. By night, several individuals occupy