Canthigaster coronata

Canthigaster coronata, commonly known as the Crowned puffer, is small pufferfish. They look very similar to the more well-known C. valentini, C. axiologus and C. cyanospilota. They’ve an off-white base colour with four black saddles over their back. The stripes don’t run into the belly like with C. valentini and around the saddle they’ve only yellow markings unlike C. axiologus which has also blue markings and C. cyanospilota which has only blue markings. A really beautiful alternative for someone looking for a C. valentini but who wants something less common.

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. coronata 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 and red algae and tunicates. But they also eat worms, shrimps, mollusks, coralline red algae and corals! So make sure to offer them a varied diet of meaty foods and algae to minimize the damage to corals.