''Chilomycterus antillarum'', the web burrfish, spiny box puffer, bridled burrfish or striped burrfish, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family Diodontidae native to the Western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, southern

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The species can grow up to 12 inches in length.

In captivity

Spiny box puffers are not recommended for the novice aquarist, as they are difficult to adjust to captive fare. They require a minimum 75 gallon aquarium, with high water quality (SG 1.020 - 1.025, pH 8.1 - 8.4, Temp. 72 - 78 °F). Their diet consists of

mollusks Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

and other meaty, live foods. The must be fed

shellfish Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...

since their beaks grow throughout their life, or they will starve. Like other puffers they inflate themselves with water to escape capture, do not force them to do this as it will cause stress.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2372007 antillarum Fish of the Caribbean Fish of the Western Atlantic Fish described in 1897 Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Taxa named by Cloudsley Louis Rutter