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

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family Diodontidae native to the Western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

, southern

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, and the

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

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. 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 a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The num ...

and other meaty, live foods. They must be fed

shellfish Shellfish, in colloquial and fisheries usage, are exoskeleton-bearing Aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrates used as Human food, food, including various species of Mollusca, molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish ...

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 Fish of Aruba