Starry Puffer

Arothron stellatus (Anonymous, 1798)

syn. Arothron aerostaticus, Arothron alboreticulatus, Arothron stellatus, Chelonodon stellaris, Diodon asper, Kanduka michiei +13 more

up to 1.2 m3-60 mPoisonousLeast Concern

1898

The largest puffer on the reef, up to 1.2 m (4 ft), white to gray and covered in fine black dots. Juveniles look like a different animal entirely, boldly marked in stripes and blotches, and the change catches out even experienced guides.

Inflation is a hydraulic trick, not air. Threatened, the fish pumps water into a highly elastic stomach diverticulum until it is a rigid sphere several times its normal volume, at which point almost nothing can get its jaws around it. The skin has no scales to get in the way, the ribs are reduced so the body can expand, and the whole operation takes a few seconds. Lifting a puffer out of the water to make it inflate with air is a good way to kill it.

The chemistry is what everyone knows and few explain. Pufferfish tissue carries tetrodotoxin, produced not by the fish but by bacteria it accumulates through its diet, and there is no antidote. It is over a thousand times more toxic than cyanide by weight, which is why fugu preparation is licensed work in 🇯🇵 Japan and why nothing on the reef bothers an adult puffer.

The four fused teeth form a beak that crushes coral, molluscs and urchins, and grow continuously to keep up with the wear.

The species. Arothron stellatus (Anonymous 1798) - starry. ETYFish

How to recognise it

very large puffer, white to gray, covered in small black dots
juveniles boldly striped and blotched, nothing like the adults
no pelvic fins; steers with the pectorals and sculls with the tail
length up to 1.2 m

Why it's threatened

Residential & commercial development

Housing & urban areas · Commercial & industrial areas · Tourism & recreation areas

Biological resource use

Intentional use: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest] · Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest] · Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]

Pollution

Sewage · Run-off · Type Unknown/Unrecorded · Oil spills · Seepage from mining · Nutrient loads · Soil erosion, sedimentation · Herbicides and pesticides · Garbage & solid waste

Climate change & severe weather

Habitat shifting & alteration · Temperature extremes

Arothron stellatus is incidentally caught in artisanal fisheries (i.e. in Sabah, Malaysia) (K. Matsuura pers. comm. 2011). It is reportedly highly palatable if handled with care. It is called "Moyo-fugu" in Japan (Nakabo 2002). _A_Due to its palatable taste and demand in the artisan food markets of Japan, this species may be experiencing or may begin to experience population declines.

Arothron stellatus is incidentally taken as bycatch in the Torres Strait Prawn Fishery (Turnbull et al. 2007) and the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery (Stobutzki et al. 2001).

There have been no confirmed population declines in A. stellatus. However, because of its association with coral reefs, mangroves and sea grasses, we infer that A. stellatus may be experiencing population declines due to habitat loss in parts of its range. As of 2008, fifteen percent of the world’s coral reefs were considered under imminent threat of being “Effectively Lost” (with 90% of the corals lost and unlikely to recover soon), with regions in East Africa, South and South-east Asia, and the wider Caribbean being the most highly threatened (Wilkinson et al. 2008). Of 704 zooxanthellate reef-building coral species which were assessed by using the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List Criteria, 32.8% are in categories with elevated risk of extinction (Carpenter et al. 2008).

One-third of global seagrass species are currently experiencing population declines, and 21% of globally assessed seagrass species are in threatened or near-threatened categories primarily due to coastal development and pollution (Short et al. 2011).

Globally, 16% of mangrove species are at elevated risk of extinction. Particular areas of geographical concern include the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, where as many as 40% of mangroves species present are threatened with extinction. (Polidoro et al. 2010). In the Caribbean, approximately 24% of mangrove area has been lost over the past quarter-century (FAO 2007).

Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.