Canthigaster bennetti

Canthigaster bennetti, commonly known as the Bennett's sharpnose puffer, is small pufferfish. Their base colour is white on the belly and light greenish-brown on the back. Their body is covered in small red dots which usually get more of a yellowish colour on the belly. Around the eyes and just in front of the caudal fin they’ve some blue thin stripes and in between some spots. Around the dorsal fin is a dark spot.

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. bennetti are 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 filamentous green 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.