Spot-fin Porcupinefish

• When threatened it swallows water and swells to three times its volume, raising the spines it normally keeps flat against its body.
• Its teeth are fused into a parrot-like beak with which it crushes sea urchins, gastropods and hermit crabs, making it an important regulator of urchin populations on the reef.
• It concentrates tetrodotoxin in the liver, skin, gonads and viscera.
• Juveniles are pelagic until they reach about 20 cm; only then do they become bottom-dwelling.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bony fish)

Habitat and environment

Lagoon and fore-reef habitats in all tropical seas, between 2 and 50 m and mostly between 3 and 20 m; by day it hides in caves and hollows

Life expectancy in captivity

Up to about ten years recorded in captivity

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Diodon hystrix