Honeycomb Toby Puffer (Canthigaster janthinoptera)

Canthigaster janthinoptera, commonly known as the Honeycomb toby, is small pufferfish. Their base colour is brown to orangish (especially around the head and back) and it’s covered in white spots on their body. On the head and over the back of the animal, these spots are greenish. Just below the dorsal fin is a large spot. This puffer looks very similar to C. punctatissima, but that species doesn’t have the large spot below the dorsal 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. janthinoptera are one of the friendliest pufferfishes, usually living solitary or as a couple, 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 sponges, bristleworms and 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.