Puffer fish create an imposing appearance by pumping air into their expandable stomach. They can be as dangerous to other fish as they look, with small teeth that form powerful cutting and crushing plates. Most puffers also produce a poison, concentrated on their skin and other organs.
The Long Island Aquarium Puffer Fish exhibit showcases the cowfish, boxfish, and porcupinefish.
Puffer fish are one of the most poisonous vertebrates in the world, containing a toxin called tetrodotoxin. The neuronal implications of tetrodotoxin are being investigated pharmaceutically for their use in relieving pain caused by cancers
Many species of puffer fish can change their coloration in response to varying environments in much the same way that a chameleon can
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