Systematic position
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Tetraodontiformes (Plectognaths)
Family: Tetraodontidae (Puffers)
Genus: Tetraodon
Species: C. fluviatilis
Synonyms
Arothron dorsovittatus Blyth, 1860
Chelonodon fluviatilis (Hamilton, 1822)
Dichotomycterus rangoonensis Le Danois, 1959
Dichotomycterus rangoonensis dorsovittatus (Blyth, 1860)
Common/local names
English: Green pufferfish and Estuarine blowfish
Bangladesh: Potka (পটকা)
India: Potoka (West Bengal) (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)
Distributions: Bangladesh, Borneo, India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).
Conservation status: Not threatened in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2000).
Morphology: Body oblong and compressed laterally with arched upper profile from snout to caudal fin. Mouth terminal and directed forward. Two lateral line are conspicuous. Body and head more or less thickly set with dermal spinules, rarely quite naked (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).
Body color olive-green on back, and white or yellow below. 3 (rarely 4) large yellowish encircled dark patches on back between eyes and dorsal fin; sides of the body with 5-28 round spots (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Fins are yellowish and numerous cross-bands on caudal fin. Caudal with 3-4 black vertical bars (Rahman, 1989 and 2005).
Fin formula:
D. 14-16; P1. 19-21; P2. Absent; A. 13-14; C. 11 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005)
D 14-16; A. 12-15; P 22 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)
Maximum lengths: 14 cm (Rahman, 1989 and 2005) and 17 cm (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991; Huda et al., 2003).
Habitats: Inhibits fresh and slightly brackish water and swims midwater (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Found in the rivers and estuaries of Bangladesh (Rahman, 1989 and 2005). Available in the Sundarbans (Huda et al., 2003).
Fishery info: Of no importance to fisheries; hardy, attractive but not too aggressive (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Very poisonous to human being (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).
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REFERENCES
Blyth E (1860) Report on some fishes received chiefly from the Sitang River and its tributary streams, Tenasserim Provinces. Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 29(2): 138-174.
Hamilton F (1822) An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches. Edinburgh & London. An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches.: i-vii + 1-405, Pls. 1-39.
Huda MS, Haque ME, Babul AS and Shil NC (ed.) (2003) Field guide to finfishes of Sundarban, Aquatic resources division, Sundarban, Boyra, Khulna, Bangladesh, p. 190.
IUCN Bangladesh (2000) Red book of threatened fishes of Bangladesh, IUCN- The world conservation union. xii+116 pp.
Le Danois Y (1959) Étude ostéologique, myologique et systématique des poissons du sous-ordre des orbiculates. Annales de l’Institut Oceanographique Monaco (New Series) 36(1): 1-273.
Rahman AKA (1989) Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 1st edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 54-55.
Rahman AKA (2005) Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 2nd edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, p. 69.
Talwar PK and Jhingran AG (1991) Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries, Vol. 2, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi-Calcutta, pp. 1055-1056.
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