Clown toado
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 Photo by Ian Skipworth
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| Canthigaster callisterna (Ogilby, 1889) |
The clown toado, Canthigaster callisterna, a pufferfish of the genus Canthigaster, is found in the southwest Pacific Ocean including Australia, the northeast coast of New Zealand, and New Caledonia. Its length is between 10 and 20 cm.
The clown toado is a small deep-bodied plump species which can inflate itself with water or air when alarmed, to many times its normal size. Small dorsal and anal fins are set back to just before the tail and the pelvic fins are absent. The teeth are fused into a thick bony plate with a sharp cutting edge.
The colour is a very distinctive yellow-green on the back, paler belly, a white stripe down each flank, and a finely reticulated pattern of blue lines and spots on the head and back and larger paler blue spots on the belly. The fins are yellow with blue stripes.
The clown toado, like other puffers, is highly poisonous.
[edit] References
- Canthigaster callisterna (TSN 646433). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 18 April 2006.
- "Canthigaster callisterna". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. March 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
- Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand, (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
