Diodon holocanthus

Diodon holacanthus, commonly known as the longspined porcupinefish, is a large porcupinefish living in tropical till subtropical waters. As juveniles they’re cream with some light brown patches. As they grow older they develop black spots and brown bands over their back that change in intensity depending on their mood. Their body is covered in backwards facing spines which will all stand erect if it feels threatened and inflates.

Porcupinefishes are just like pufferfish very intelligent fish and will quickly learn to recognize you and your behaviour. Their intelligence and behaviour make you soon treat these animals more like a dog than a fish. Combined with the unusual shape, they make up a showpiece in every tank!

When young they often live in small groups between the seagrass, but once matured they live alone or in pairs and for a home aquarium we recommend to only keep one per tank.

Remember they aren’t reef safe though! They feed on almost anything they can catch, like crab, molluscs, worms, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates, all kinds of algae from coralline to fleshy and corals (mostly at night, but in an aquarium they soon learn to eat during the day). It can be aggressive towards other fish, so make sure you pick the other fishes with care! Because their teeth will grow their entire life, they need to eat hard/shelled food constantly to keep them from growing too large. Be sure to offer foods like crab, whole shrimp and snails on a regular basis.