Canthigaster valentini

Canthigaster valentini, commonly known as the Valentin's sharpnose puffer, is small pufferfish. They’ve an off-white base colour with four black saddles over their back. Two of them form a stripe all the way towards the belly. Their body is covered in light brownish stripes (on the nose) and spots (towards the yellow caudal fin). Their eyes are orange and green which flows over towards their back.

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. valentini are one of the friendliest pufferfishes, which even forms schools of 10-100 individuals in nature (often with around 5% Paraluteres prionures mixed in), 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.