Sharing The Love

No matter where you look in the world, from the tops of the highest mountains to the farthest reaches of the oceans, love abounds. While some may dismiss it as nothing more than a chemical reaction, love is undoubtedly as powerful a force as nature as the tides and it can sometimes hold the key to survival itself.

The Valentine Puffer (Canthigaster valentine) is an example of a little fish that, despite its size, has lots of love to spare, as each male is accompanied by a “harem” of females that he will protect and mate with equally. The loved-up group will be found in the warm reefs and shallow tropical seas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, peacefully nibbling on algae, tunicates and just about any mobile invertebrate that they can fit into their mouths.

As well as the common puffer defence of inflating themselves into an intimidating-looking spiky ball, the seemingly innocuous fish are also protected by the fact that they are poisonous to a great many of the predators that would otherwise make a quick meal of them.

But this cosy setup benefits more fish than just the puffers, and another canny species has been happy to take advantage of the Valentine’s love and join the group. The Saddle Puffer Filefish (Paraluterus prionurus) closely mimics the puffer in appearance and even goes so far as to join schools of puffers to enjoy the safety in numbers. By looking nearly exactly the same and hiding within a group, the Filefish often goes unnoticed and even when individually noticed, looks just as poisonous and unpalatable as the real thing.