Anyone out there have pictures of the Sharpnose Puffer (Canthigaster rostrata) that they are willing to donate?

I am writing my thesis on these fish, and I don't have any really good still-frames from my video recordings, plus I was only using ambient light.

You will get photo credit & an acknowledgement, if I decide to use your pic(s). Plus you can claim your photography was published! (but there will only be one copy, in the library at my college).

If you have pics to send, please either post here, or send me a private message. The higher quality the better. Also, if known, please include as much info as possible, like the date, dive site, depth, etc.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Here is a link, in case you are unsure of what a Sharpnose Puffer looks like:

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4291

One.

Two

You'll probably like the second more.

Thanks Cecil! If you'd like to be credited, please send me your full name.

Keep em coming!

This picture was taken by a friend of ours and one of my favorites.

My picture was too big to post! Now, I am terrible at this, it was hard enough to get the darn thing from email to My Pictures, but now I have to figure out how to make it smaller and no button on my computer tells me how to do that, so I give up. Maybe later I can get hubby to do it for me. Sorry.

Didn't someone just post one under trip reports or maybe the photography section?

Hi Debbie,

thanks for trying... you can click my name in blue above & send it to my email via a private message.

and i thought that was some sort of trunkfisk ;)

oops...

Thanks Bob!

I took a look through my picture from my last trip. I found many shots of Sharpnose Puffer butts, but I also found this one.

These are great - what a fun thread
Good luck with your thesis!

Thanks again, Cecil!

I took some good puffer pics just last week. I even got one with two puffers!! First trip with uw camera and my beginners luck had my hub a bit jealous! I'm not sure how to post them so I'll get him to help me over the weekend.

Can you tell us more about your thesis? What will your degree be?

Hi

I'm not that good with fish id, but I hope some of these are the right kind. If so, tell me the number/numbers and I will mail them in higher quality.

henrik,

was waiting for your post - you give the rest of us something to "shoot" for;)

thanks,

Bob you got that right. Shoot for is not quite right, I was thinking pray for.

They are the best, Henrik.

Hi Henrik,

thanks for posting. your pictures are great. if you know where you took these pictures it would help with identification. The sharpnose puffer is an Atlantic species, and I think there are a few pictures of its sister Indo-Pacific species, the compressed toby, or Figi spotted puffer. I could use them all, for a comparative stance.

The fish with the white bellies are probably sharpnose puffers, the orange ones are the pacific vareity.

They are all from Bonaire. Most of them from Buddy´s reef. I have date, some dive sites, but no depth of the pics. Tell me if I should mail some of them.

Henrik,

It's very interesting that all of these are from Bonaire... I think we may have stumbled upon something.

In 2002, 3 new species of the Atlantic Canthigasterae were described. Previous thought was that there was only one species - C. rostrata, the sharpnose puffer. The only one with a dark spot below its dorsal fin (as in the 2nd and 5th pictures) is supposed to occur off the west coast of Africa only. Some of these fish may be hybrids. Or they just might be wrong about the distribution.

If it's not too much trouble, could you please send me all of these pictures with all of the info you have for them? This is very exciting, and I would like to show them to the Prof. of Ichthyology at my school.

I would especially appreciate the location, since I will be back in Bonaire this summer for more field research.

Thanks so much!

- Jen

Is this the same species you are looking for?
http://www.gordalder.com/Vacations/Florida%20Keys%202006/slides/IMG_4947.jpg

Took this shot in the Florida Keys this Easter weekend.

Hi Gord,

Yes - that's the one! Great pic!

Like I said, until recently all of the Atlantic sharpnose puffers were considered one species, but now they have divided them up. I'm looking for pics of *any* fish resembling this form, regardless of the color pattern. As long as it was taken in the Atlantic, of course - in the Pacific & Indian ocean there are like 20 species of Cantigaster.

Hope you had fun diving in the keys... I worked on a dive boat to Looe Key for a while. I haven't been diving in the keys since the hurricanes last year.

Feel free to use the one above. It was taken in about 20ft of water, south of Key Largo in Taveriener.

Yes, I enjoyed the Key's, but its not the same as Bonaire.

Gordo

Here's one from Bonaire from Oct. 2005.

very nice! thank you, Dennis!

looks like a male (on the left) is visiting with one of the females in his harem. either that, or he is a bachelor male, sneaking in a visit.

These fish have such interesting social lives... if anyone is curious about it, let me know, I'd be happy to tell you all about it...

I want to know. These little guys are hard to catch on film. Shy, small, and usually out of focus for my part. I'm always pointing my lense that way, so tell us more Jenny.

The female sharpnose puffers defend a small territory within the larger territory of a haremic male. They ward off other females, but ignore juvenile fish. A male fish visits the female in her territory periodically throughout the day.

The male sharpnose puffers are of three types:

1. solitary males - they do not visit females and do not defend territories that contain females. these are usually the smallest of the adult males.

2. bachelor males - they do not defend a territory containing females, but do attempt to visit and mate with females within the females' territory

3. haremic males - they defend a large territory containing the smaller territories of 2 or more females. they are aggressive towards other males that invade their territory

When these fish spawn, the male presents himself to the female and a courtship display ensues. he nudges the female with his snout, as she begins to pick off little pieces of algae from rocks. she prepares an algal nest, then both of the fish press their genital regions together and release their gametes in a spawning "quiver". Once the eggs have been deposited in the nest, both fish leave the area and do not return, thus there is no parental care in this species. They are reported to spawn every 3-14 days, more often in warmer months.

An interesting facet of their behavior is that they seem to be fully aware of when they are crossing into another fish's territory. When they approach the boundary of another's territory, they assume a mottled pattern, which Henrik has actually captured in the fourth photo he posted (way to go Henrik!). When a sharpnose puffer displays a mottled pattern, it is thought to discourage aggression from other fish of this species.

My thesis will be on communication in coral reef fish based on body patterns, and the sharpnose puffer is one of my prime examples. I was hoping the BNMP would allow me to capture a few specimens to test in aquaria, but they are afraid it would upset the divers too much to see someone with a hand net, even though I would be returning them to where I caught them after just a week or two. I had a really awesome experiment planned so it's kind of disappointing. Oh well....

Here is the article that provided most of this information:

Sikkel, Paul C. (1990). Social organization and spawning in the Atlantic sharpnose puffer, Canthigaster rostrata (Tetraodontidae. Environmental Biology of Fishes 27: pp 243-254.

oh, and to tell the difference between a male and female....

the males are larger. the dorsal point formed by the supraoccipital spine is much more prominent in males, and reduced or absent in females. (In Dennis' photo above, you can see that the large fish on the left has a bit of a 'hump' on his back behind his eye, while the female does not).

These fish do not change sex.