Niphobles Puffer

Facts about the Niphobles Puffer, it is a category of pufferfish that belongs to the genus Takifugu of the family Tetraodontidae. The binomial name of this fish is Takifugu niphobles, and it is native to brackish and salt waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean, where it is largely found in coastal regions, ranging from China, Japan and South Korea to Viet Nam at a depth that ranges from 3.3 feet to 66 feet (1 meter to 20 meters). However, some of the Niphobles Puffer species can also be seen in the freshwater of Asia or more extensively in the Indo-Pacific area and in the Bohai Sea.

Features

The Niphobles Puffer is characterized by a rough skin that is habitually covered with tiny spinulous scales. The Niphobles Puffer has a dental plate, similar to a beak, which is separated by a median suture. The Niphobles Puffer has a gill opening anterior similar to a slit to the bottom of its pectoral fin. It has no fin spines, no pelvic fins, but a single usually short-based dorsal and anal fin, without ribs.

The Niphobles Puffer is a marginal freshwater fish that is frequently seen in brackish water and is recognized to make small trips into small freshwater rivers occasionally, probably to rid itself of ectofleas.

The Niphobles Puffer is capable of inflating its abdomens with water when disturbed or frightened and is capable of manufacturing and building up toxins, like saxitoxin and tetrodotoxin in its gonads, skin and liver. The flesh and testes are toxic to some extent. The level of toxicity differs by species, and according to the geographic region and season, as well. These fish species will boast the smallest vertebrate genomes recognized so far.

The Niphobles Puffer is speciated and radiated in seawaters around Korea, China and Japan. The uppermost species mass is found in the East China Sea, Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, followed by the Pacific Coast of Japan and the Sea of Japan, and lastly by the South China Sea.

Groups of the Niphobles Puffer made up of 1,000 fish have been observed to meet off specific seashores in Japan from the later part of May to the early part of July, once a year, to spawn during the time of dusk for quite a lot of days during spring waves. There will be more males than the female ones in the group at the time of the spawning period.

The Niphobles Puffer will structure the spawning groups that consist of one ripe female fish and numerous males. As an inter-wave spawner, this fish species will deposit its sperm and eggs on seashores with pebble, rock and boulder bottoms. Spawning fish will fling themselves from surface of the water and fertilization will take place on the seashore where gametes are swept back into the ocean afterward, or may be hatched beneath rocks on the seashore, hence continuing periods of contact to air. In the waters of Hong Kong, the yearly spawning period of this species commences from October and continues until February. The level of toxin in the ovaries increases at the time of the non-spawning periods, and decreases at the time of spawning period.

Diet

In the wild, the Niphobles Puffer mostly feeds on molluscs, algae, invertebrates, and occasionally it feeds on crustaceans.

The average lifespan of the Niphobles Puffer ranges from 8 years to 15 years.