Animal-World > Freshwater Fish > Puffers - Pufferfish > Pignose Puffer

Pignose Puffer

Arrowhead Puffer ~ Mekong Puffer Family: Tetraodontidae

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Tetraodon suvattii Photo © Animal-World: Courtesy Ken Childs

  A fish that is reminiscent of a pig...and an arrowhead!

   The turned-up nose of the Tetraodon suvattii gives it a pig nosed appearance and the black V-shaped mark on the back of its head looks distinctly like an arrowhead. Thus the common names of Pignose Puffer and Arrowhead Puffer, along with the name Mekong Puffer derived from its native origin.

   The Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer isn’t the fish to have if you want to keep a lot of different species in your tank. They can be very aggressive and because of their beak like mouth, they have the ability to chop most any fish or invertebrate into bite-sized pieces. Though territorial with their own species, they may or may not be more tolerant of other larger species. If you try to keep more than one or keep other fish, be sure to provide lots of hiding places such as caves and roots. Provide plenty of decor and have it situated in such a way as to break up their line of sight to prevent fighting.

   These puffers are very inactive. If their tank has fine gravel or sand as the substrate, they will sometimes bury themselves leaving only their mouth and eyes exposed. When buried, they may appear to be resting or sleeping, but don't let this act fool you. If food swims anywhere near to their mouth, they will explode out of the sand and gobble it down!

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Freshwater Aquarium

Distribution:
   The Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer is native to Southeast Asia in the Mekong River basin where it is generally found in the muddy substrate, though it is also found in rocky substrates as well.

Status:
   These fish are not endangered.

Description:
   The Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer is quite reminiscent of it's common names. It is a stocky fish that has a turned-up nose giving it a pig nosed appearance and a black V-shaped mark on the back of its head looking distinctly like an arrowhead. Like many of the pufferfish, coloring can vary with age, disposition, and environment. This pufferfish generally has a whitish underside and varying shades of gray above with green to yellow patterning.
   Pufferfish have the ability to 'puff' themselves up with water or air if threatened. When they inflate, their spines protrude outward and this apparently helps keep them from being eaten. Another defense of many puffer species is to produce toxic substances in their flesh that is poisonous if eaten. The Pufferfish can be quite long lived in the aquarium, many living for 10 or more years.

Size - Weight:
   These fish can get up to 5½ inches (14 cm).

Care and feeding:
   The Pignose Puffers or Arrowhead Puffers are are carnivores. Live or frozen/defrosted fish, shell on shrimp, or small crabs will be greedily eaten. Other foods include live or frozen mussels, cockles, and clams; snails; Tubifex; crustaceans; insect larvae; earthworms; krill; crayfish, ghost shrimp; occasionally tablets. This puffer should be fed every other day while small, decreasing this to just two or three times per week as an adult.
   Puffers have strong teeth that grow throughout their lives. They need to be offered hard shelled live food often to keep their teeth worn down. Acceptable foods include shellfish, crustaceans and hard shelled foods such as snails will help wear down the teeth. If the teeth get too long, they will be unable to eat, requiring the owner to clip the teeth.
   Since puffers do not have gill covers or scales, they are thought to be more susceptible to diseases, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia levels. Consequently they are not a good fish to cycle an aquarium with. Also because they usually don't eat all of their food (messy eaters!), these fish will usually put more load on the aquarium filtration requiring more frequent water changes and better maintenance in general. A generous weekly water change of 30% to 50% is the standard recommendation for a puffer aquarium.
   This is not a particularly active fish so a tank of 30 gallons should be large enough to keep one happy. A freshwater species, this pufferfish should not be kept in brackish or salt water.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:
  The Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer is quite inactive and will usually stay at or near the bottom of the tank.

Acceptable Water Conditions:
   Temp: 74° - 82° F (23 - 28°C)
   pH: 6.7 - 7.7
   Hardness: 5-15 dH

Social Behaviors:
   The Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer can be extremely aggressive so they are candidates for a single species tank. If you feel you must have some other fish in the tank with them, try quick species that swim at or near the surface but after reading their description and our introduction...don’t say you weren’t warned!

Sexual Differences:
   Sexual differences are unknown though the females may be larger.

Breeding/Reproduction:
   Has not been bred in captivity.

Availability:
   Although not considered rare, the Pignose Puffer or Arrowhead Puffer are only occasionally available.

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Latest Comments
These have been bred in captivity. Please visit thepufferforum.com there are many photos of the fry from the Arrowhead puffers. Great posting though! Thanks for the info Busybones 2009-10-26
Hey! David foster has the best fish aquarium I have ever seen!... and his chick makes good apple pie! ha ha random ha.. the 4th was sick! lol EDITORS NOTE: Hey, maybe David would put some pics of his aquarium in the gallery, would love to see it - and of course Dr. Jungle LOVES apple pie! :)) [See David Foster's comment below...] kris chillinsky 2009-07-07
It is very towards my other fish. I change my water twice a week and they don't like to get the water changed. When they do get there water changed I noticed that they won't even eat until after a week or two. Kenny 2009-03-04
hi my name is david and i am an avid fish keeper, i have many years experience keeping everything from killis to rifts, knifefishes to marines but by a country mile puffers especially pignoses are the most charismatic and enjoyable of all my many fish, just watch your fingers with those razor sharp beaks. david foster 2007-11-10
The Tetraodon suvattiii has been successfully bred in captivity for the first time by Ian Jefferies. Details can be found at www.thepufferforum.com Ian 2007-01-22

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Author: Ken Childs
Additional Information: Clarice Brough CFFS