Puffer fish in demand

It’s shorter than your index finger, it’s quite poisonous but much in demand in the aquarium trade. The Malabar Puffer Fish, endemic to Kerala and Karnataka and mostly found in the northern water bodies in Kerala, has for the first time been discovered further south. A scientific team consisting of G Prasad, K Sabu and P V Pratibhakumari of the Laboratory of Conservation Biology, Zoology Department, Kerala University, collected specimens of the miniscule fish from the Kallar River in the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary a week ago. The find has added one more species to the fish wealth of this region.