tetraodontiform
tetraodontiform, (order Tetradontiformes), any member of a group of primarily tropical marine fishes that are closely related to the perciforms (the typical advanced spiny-rayed fishes) that evolved during the Eocene Period of the Cenozoic Era, about 50 million years ago. Included are the triggerfishes, puffers, filefishes, and porcupine fishes.
The approximately 360 species of modern tetraodontiforms are notable for a high degree of diversity in anatomical structure and way of life. The great diversity evident among the nine families of the order is also seen within some families but not in others. Members of the deepwater bottom-dwelling Triacanthodidae, the most primitive family, for example, range from relatively normal configurations to weirdly specialized forms with extremely long tubular snouts; the shallow-water members of the Triacanthidae, which share generalized characteristics with the Triacanthodidae, are of rather uniform configuration. Likewise, the balistids are rather uniform in body plan; however, the monacanthids include a series of species ranging from the normal to the exceedingly elongated and highly specialized.
General features
The tetraodontiforms make up about 5 percent of the tropical marine fishes of the world. Most species range in size from about 8 to 60 cm (3 to 24 inches) in length, but one, the mola, or ocean sunfish (Mola mola), reaches more than 3 metres (10 feet). They are often strikingly patterned or gaudily coloured. With the exception of the relatively deepwater Triacanthodidae and Triodontidae, the members of this order are usually found in waters less than about 65 metres (200 feet) in depth and are especially prominent around coral or rocky reefs and on open sand and grass flats.
Many species, especially puffer fishes (Tetraodontidae), have poisonous flesh, at least during certain seasons of the year, but most of the highly poisonous substance (tetraodontoxin) responsible for the numerous annual fatalities in Indo-Pacific regions is contained in the viscera. The flesh of the poisonous species can be safely eaten only when the freshly caught specimen has been carefully cleaned and washed in the exacting manner of fugu (or puffer fish) chefs in Japan. The majority of tetraodontiforms are palatable, and in numerous tropical regions the flesh of various triggerfishes and trunkfishes is highly esteemed.
Other than as food in tropical coastal areas, humans make little direct use of tetraodontiforms, except for collecting the dried bodies of the hard-cased boxfishes and the spine-studded inflated puffers as curios. In fact, the order Tetraodontiformes contains so many strangely specialized species that the group has intrigued humankind from early times; 1st-century Roman author Pliny the Younger, for example, discussed puffer fishes and ocean sunfishes in his Natural History. While most adult tetraodontiforms have thick, spiny skins or other defensive mechanisms that protect them from most predacious fishes, the relatively defenseless young are eaten in great quantities by certain game fishes—dolphin, marlin and other billfishes, tunas, and various jacks. The tiger pufferfish, Takifugu rubripes, has been discovered to have one of the smallest known vertebrate genomes (that is, the entire set of chromosomes in an organism) and thus serves as an important experimental biological organism.
Natural history
Feeding habits
As one would suspect from their usually well-developed and massive dentition, with many having the teeth fused together in a parrotlike beak, most tetraodontiforms feed on hard-shelled crustaceans, mollusks, and echinoderms. But some with massive, crushing jaws and teeth, such as the ocean sunfishes, often feed extensively on such soft-bodied invertebrates as jellyfishes (medusae). Some, such as boxfishes, blow a jet of water out of their mouths onto sand bottoms to expose burrowing invertebrates; others (such as some triggerfishes) specialize in eating spiny sea urchins or even clams and oysters. A few species, especially the long-snouted Triacanthodidae, have reduced or even rudimentary teeth, some apparently feeding on the scales of other bottom fishes. Other species probably feed on soft-bodied invertebrates, probing with the snout into holes in the bottom or into recesses in outcroppings to obtain food unavailable to less-specialized fishes. Although many species have specialized feeding habits, the order as a whole can be considered as comprising opportunistic predators on invertebrates.
Locomotion
Most tetraodontiforms swim by the rather unusual method of rapid undulations or complex scullings of the soft dorsal and anal fins (in the midline of the back and underside, respectively); the powerful caudal fin (except in the Molidae) is reserved for rapid bursts of speed. The paired pectoral fins (just behind the gills) are in an almost constant state of rapid vibration, which gives a delicacy of control to their movements that is unusual even among fishes.
Activity cycle
Those tetraodontiforms for which data are available are diurnal, feeding or otherwise active during daylight but quiescent at night, often retiring to holes or crevices in coral or rocky reefs to sleep. When disturbed during the day, as by a potential predator, some species take rapid flight; others dive into reef crevices. Other species avoid the attention of predators by remarkable colorations or patternings that permit them to blend into the environment, which may be anything from a coral reef to a bed of sea grass. Moreover, one relatively defenseless species, a filefish, is an excellent mimic in body form and bright coloration of a poisonous puffer.