Canthigaster amboinensis

Canthigaster amboniensis, commonly known as the Spider-eye toby, is small/medium pufferfish. Their base colour is brown but it’s covered in greenish spots and on the top of the head it has greenish stripes. On the cheeks/throat are blue spots and stripes and the unpaired fins are also blueish, especially the base of the anal fin.

Pufferfishes are 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. C. amboniensis is one of the friendliest pufferfishes, which even forms groups sometimes, but they remain pufferfishes so each individual can have a different temper. In a tank they can best be kept alone or as a mated couple/harem to prevent territorial fights.

Although these are one of the most reefsafe pufferfishes, they can always nip certain corals till the point that they die. In nature they feed mainly on algae but they also eat worms, shrimps, mollusks, coralline red algae and corals from time to time! So make sure to offer them a varied diet of meaty foods and algae to minimize the damage to corals.