A thousand puffers?
July 10, 2026
"Pinky promise, if you lie, you'll swallow 1000 needles! Pinky promise!!"
I think this is a phrase I often used when making promises as a child. Hearing this phrase, I suddenly thought:
"Do pufferfish really have 1000 spines?"
...So I decided to actually count them. I used a pufferfish specimen from the "Information Desk" on the second floor of Tokyo Sea Life Park.
When a pufferfish senses danger, it inflates its body and raises its spines. This specimen has all its spines raised, making them easy to count.
I separated them with string and marked them as I counted. The result was 394 spines. Incidentally, I found out online that other people have counted them as well, and it seems that the number of spines varies from one pufferfish to another, but they were all around 300 to 400.
Despite its name, "1000 Needles," it was far from having 1000 needles. I wondered if there are any creatures with 1000 needles, so I decided to count them on other creatures as well.
Like the porcupinefish, the rat Spot-fin Porcupinefish has spines, and when danger approaches, it inflates its body and raises its spines to protect itself. At the aquarium, it is on display in the "South China Sea" tank in the World Oceans area.
Counting them on swimming Spot-fin Porcupinefish is difficult, so I counted them on skin specimens. The result was 449. Once again, I didn't reach 1000.
"Are there any other creatures with spines?" I wondered, searching the aquarium, and I found this creature.
This is Purple Sea Urchin. It is on display in the "Shore Creatures" tank and the "Tide Pool" corner. Purple Sea Urchin use these spines to protect themselves from being eaten by other creatures.
Since it's difficult to count the spines on a living sea urchin, we use sea urchin shell specimens in Information Desk. You can view these anytime by asking a staff member.
When a sea urchin dies, its spines fall off, leaving behind a shell covered in many small bumps. These bumps are where the spines used to be, so by counting them, you can determine how many spines it originally had.
The result was 1336! We found a creature with over 1000 "spines"!
Since I counted them by looking at the photo, I likely overlooked some of the smaller ones on the outside, and there are probably many more in reality.
Of the three species we counted, the pufferfish, nicknamed "1000 Needles," had the fewest spines.
Names often reflect the characteristics of living creatures, but when you actually observe them, you'll find that some creatures have a surprising difference from what their names suggest. Seeing is believing. I encourage you all to visit an aquarium and observe the creatures for yourselves!
[Tokyo Sea Life Park]