Did you know that this specimen ships from our LiveAquaria® Wisconsin Facility, home of our popular Diver's Den® WYSIWYG Store and our LiveAquaria® Certified Captive Grown Corals (CCGC)? What that means is that you can rest assured knowing this specimen received the highest level of care from our experienced and professional LiveAquaria® staff!

PLUS, hobbyists that use our LiveAquaria® Professional Reef Salt have the added benefit knowing marine species shipped from our LiveAquaria® Wisconsin Facility share the same water parameters. In other words, if you use our Professional Reef Salt, marine species shipped from our Wisconsin Facility will acclimate and transition to your home aquarium with less stress to set the foundation for longer term success.

The Saddle Valentini Puffer, also known as the Black Saddle Pufferfish, Blacksaddled Toby, Valentini Toby, or Saddled Toby, is a compact and ornate puffer fish sure to inject lively activity to your saltwater aquarium. The Saddle Valentini Puffer belongs to the genus Canthigaster, a group of puffer fish collectively referred to as Sharp-nosed Puffers, Tobies, or Toby Puffers. Like many puffer fish, the Saddle Valentini Puffer demonstrates an exceptional degree of "intelligence" and "personality", making it an endearing addition for puffer fish enthusiasts unable to house the popular and much larger Arothron puffers.

The Saddle Valentini Puffer features attractive, ornate markings with dark brown saddles (bands) across the midsection, brownish-orange spotting on the lower half, and bright yellow coloration that accentuates portions of the body, fins, and eyes with a pop of color. Though lacking pelvic fins, the Saddle Valentini Puffer is extremely maneuverable and is a tenacious and capable predator. As a member of the family Tetraodontidae, the Saddle Valentini Puffer posses the toxin tetrodotoxin in parts of its body and is capable of inflating its body to almost twice its normal size when threatened or alarmed. These formidable defense mechanisms are perhaps the source of its bold and inquisitive personality.

In the wild, the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish boasts a large natural distribution with the largest concentration in the Indo-Pacific Ocean and populations also found in the Red Sea south to Durban, South Africa and east to the Tuamoto Islands, and north to southern Japan. The Saddle Valentini Puffer fish is a reef-associated species typically found among coral heads and rocks of subtidal lagoon and seaward reefs. The Saddle Valentini Puffer fish is common on coastal reefs at various depths, often forming large shoals intermingled with Saddled Filefish (Paraluteres prionurus), a Saddle Valentini Puffer mimic that seeks protection from predators by associating with the poisonous Saddle Valentini Puffer fish.

For best care, the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish should be housed in an established, well-filtered aquarium of at least 30 gallons in size. To best recreate a natural environment for your Saddle Valentini Puffer fish, aquascape generously with live rock making sure to arrange your aquarium landscape with ample nooks and crannies for your Saddle Valentini Puffer fish to explore. Not unlike other toby puffers, the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish can demonstrate territorial aggression towards its own species as well as congeners, so it is important to keep just one Saddle Valentini Puffer fish per aquarium. House with fish of similar size and temperament and be aware that the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish is a known fin-nipper and will eat invertebrates found in the aquarium using its fused, beak-like teeth to crush open its prey. For this reason, the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish is well-suited for the fish-only or fish-only-with-live-rock marine aquarium and should be housed in a reef aquarium with caution as it may prey upon desirable ornamental invertebrates.

The diet of the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish should consist of a variety of meaty food items such as chopped squid, krill, shrimp, as well as hard-shelled foods such as clams, mussels, and crustaceans to help wear down its ever-growing teeth. To ensure a balanced omnivore diet, be sure to also provide plenty of marine-based seaweed and algae or prepared foods with Spirulina algae. Like many puffer fish, the Saddle Valentini Puffer fish can be a messy eater so it might be prudent to consider enhancing aquarium water quality by employing an efficient protein skimmer.

Approximate Purchase Size: 1.5" to 3"