A smaller pufferfish is the Pea puffer or the dwarf pufferfish (C. travancoricus) This species of freshwater pufferfish originates from the Southwest part of India.
These are small fish and often reach a maximum length of 1 inch as an adult fish.
The pea puffer is a very common fish in the aquarium hobby where it is a great schooling fish that are loved because they are small and have beautiful colors and patterns on their bodies.
They thrive in numbers or in stands or in the overall bottom of an aquarium or pond or in the lakes, streams, and rivers in their habitat. Though pea puffers are often associated with marine pufferfishes they belong to a similar group but the pea puffer is among only 27 species of Tetraodontidae that are found in freshwater.
Pea Puffer Appearance
Pea puffer pufferfish are small, fall under freshwater preferences, and are relatively small growing to an average mature size of 1 inch or 2.5 cm for the common pea puffer, a record giant pea puffer, measured 1.4 inches or 3.5 cm in size. It has an olive-yellow golden bodysize in its back and lateral line with black iridescent spots. Males and female pea puffers do not differ in color, but if there is a difference then, the males are slightly more colorful than the females.
They have high, fan-shaped pectoral fins with a notch at the apex of the fins. In the body of the pea puffer, dorsal and anal fins are situated at a reverse position and the caudal fins are larger than any other fin. Female pea puffers have a round belly and may be slightly larger than the males and they have larger white spots between the darker figures on their sides. Males will have a black line down the middle of their belly and will have a ‘Blue eye crease’ around the eye area which the female pea puffer will not have.
Pea Puffer: Location, Density and Environment
Pea puffers are migratory fish and there is freshwater and they dwell in large schools. They are inhabitants of the rivers, estuaries, and lakes of south Karnataka and Kerala in the Western Ghats of India. They like to live in habitats with a PH of 7.5 to 8.3 and tropical water temperature ranges of 72 to 82 Fahrenheit(22-28 Celsius) respectively.
This fish mostly inhabits the environment with a lot of planted aquatic vegetation in heavily planted tanks that have a substrate of rocky clay loam or silt gravel. This species is recorded from 13 different rivers in Kerala of which a few are the Pamba River and they also occur in Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary.
The pea puffers are rather bottom and midwater dwellers who, hiding in large shoals among the reed roots, forage there for food.
It can be now bought almost everywhere since pufferfish became very popular among aquarium lovers and they are often used in nano tanks because of their small size.
Pea Puffer Predators and Prey
Hunters and Natural Protection
If there is one thing that makes the pea puffer an undesirable meal for many of its natural predators, it would be these defense mechanisms. Similar to other pufferfish species, the pea pufferfish on occasion will ingest water, or in some cases, air, and blow up its bodies through enlarged elastic stomachs.
The Pea Puffers Diet
Pea puffer diets mainly consist of insects, water fleas, copepods, larvae, and occasionally, tiny algae. The pea puffer will also feed on other tiny organisms that are found in the water including the zooplanktön. Of all the feeder fish and food available in the aquarium, this fish feeds on shrimp, blood worms, snails, freeze-dried, and live foods that can be bought from an aqua shop.
Breeding habits of the Pea Puffer and Life expectancy
The mid-dorsal and ventral skin ridges of mature male pea puffers during spawning will change color to brown and the female’s belly will increase in size due to the courting behavior of the male where he will chase the female around the aquarium by her belly.
As noted earlier pea puffers are oviparous and can lay eggs at any particular time of the year in their natural habitat most of the pea puffers mature and reproduce during May, June, July, and August when the South-West monsoon is experienced in the Pamba River. If the spawn has been successful then the male and the female will move off the eggs, and the male will soon come back to guard the eggs. The same pair of pea puffers may be able to spawn several times within a given 1 to 4 days and at elevated temperatures the eggs hatch and are tiny.
The pea puffer fish has an average length of about 4 years in the wild and also in captivity. Despite all these, the pea puffer fish is very difficult to care for and even the most experienced aquarists cannot keep them alive for over two years even under the correct feeding practices and excellent water quality.
Pea Puffer Population
However, several researchers believe that the pea puffer is endangered and its status on the IUCN Red List is vulnerable. Their population has been reduced through acts like deforestation, pollution by humans, farming land, and fishing targeting the aquatic animals for the aquarium pet trade business.
Based on the records the number of pea puffers available in the year 2005-2015 has drastically reduced to about 30 to 40%. The natural habitat of this fish is the second most important since a majority of pea puffer fish are acclimatized in the aquaria trade.
3 Facts About Pea Puffers
- The pea puffer is also considered to be one of the world’s smallest freshwater pufferfish available.
- Unlike many aquarium fish, ea puffers have very few differences in terms of shape and color between the males and females, but the male has a blue ring around its eyes which are wrinkled and stripy bands at the body.
- Even though they are small fishes, the pea puffer fish are aggressive and tend to guard their territories against other puffer as well as other species of fish.
