Species: Diodon holocanthus, Balloonfish, Balloonfish Porcupinefish, Long-spine Balloonfish

Diodon holocanthus Linnaeus, 1758

Balloonfish, Long-spine Balloonfish, Balloonfish Porcupinefish

Body a robust oval, inflatable; head wide and blunt; a pair of small barbels on chin; eyes large; nasal organ a flat short tentacle with 2 openings; teeth fused into a strong, parrot-like beak with two plates that lack a front groove, large, opens widely at front; gill opening a vertical slit before pectoral base; pectorals large; fins without spines; no pelvic fins; dorsal fin 13-14; anal fin rays 13-14; pectoral rays 22-25; body and head covered with numerous long (> eye), erectible, 2-rooted, slender, round spines; 12-16 spines in an approximate row from top of snout to dorsal fin; 12-15 spines between lower jaw and anus; anterior middle spines on top of head longer than longest spines posterior to pectoral fins; no spines on tail base.

Light olive to pale brown, shading to white ventrally; small black spots on upper two-thirds of head and body; a brown bar from above to below eye; a broad brown bar across occipital region through eye, and another across middle of back; a large oval brown blotch above each pectoral fin and another around dorsal-fin base; fins pale, without spots.

Size: attains 60 cm.

Inhabits reefs and open sand-rubble bottoms.

Depth: 0-190 m.

Circumtropical distribution; Maine to S Brazil.