''Dichotomyctere nigroviridis'' (

syn. The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...

''Tetraodon nigroviridis'') is one of the

pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

known as the green spotted puffer. It is found across

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

and

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

in coastal

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

,but survives the longest in brackish to saltwater, and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

water habitats. ''D. nigroviridis'' reaches a typical maximum length of about (5.9 in), with reports of up to .Schäfer F: Brackish Water Fishes, Aqualog 2005, In February 2009, it was successfully bred in captivity at

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

using a new variation of the ovarian lavage technique.

In the aquarium

''Dichotomyctere nigroviridis'' is frequently raised in aquariums. However, the species' aggressive nature limits its ability to be housed with other fish. In captivity, specimens can grow up to 10 cm in length. The species is an omnivorous brackish water species and is most commonly raised in water with a pH level of 8. This species begins life in brackish water and progresses to saltwater as it becomes an adult.

Ecology

Adults of ''D. nigroviridis'' are found in freshwater streams, rivers, and flood plains; young are found in brackish water. They are also found in

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

forests. Their diet consists primarily of snails, but includes mollusks, crustaceans, and some plant material. This species may also be

lepidophagous Lepidophagy is a specialised feeding behaviour in fish that involves eating the scales of other fish. Lepidophagy is widespread, having evolved independently in at least five freshwater families and seven marine families. A related feeding behavi ...

. Its flesh contains a virulent

toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring organic poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. Toxins occur especially as a protein or conjugated protein. The term toxin was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849– ...

, and should not be eaten.

Genetics

''D. nigroviridis'' has the smallest known

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

, roughly 340 million

base pair A base pair (bp) is a fundamental unit of double-stranded nucleic acids consisting of two nucleobases bound to each other by hydrogen bonds. They form the building blocks of the DNA double helix and contribute to the folded structure of both DNA ...

s, and has thus been selected as a model organism for

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

. In 2004, a draft of its genome sequence was published.

Colour

''D. nigroviridis'' is green on the body with black spots. Its belly is white and its fins and tail are light green.

Commercial importance

''D. nigroviridis'' is by no means a food fish, but has some value as bait and is very widely traded as an

aquarium fish Lists of aquarium life include lists of fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants in freshwater, brackish and marine aquariums. In fishkeeping, suitable species of aquarium fish, plants and other organisms vary with the size, water chemistry and ...

, and is sometimes mistaken as ''

Dichotomyctere fluviatilis The green pufferfish or Ceylon pufferfish (''Dichotomyctere fluviatilis'', syn. ''Tetraodon fluviatilis'') is a species of pufferfish found in South and Southeast Asia. Its habitat include rivers, estuaries, lakes and flood plains. It lives ...

''. ''D. nigroviridis'' also has some value as a lab animal, in particular in genetics, because it has the same number of

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

as human beings, but in a genome about one-tenth the size.

References

External links

Genome database.
* View th
tetraodon genome
in

Ensembl Ensembl genome database project is a scientific project at the European Bioinformatics Institute, which provides a centralized resource for geneticists, molecular biologists and other researchers studying the genomes of our own species and other v ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1581182 Tetraodontidae Fish described in 1822