Species: Chilomycterus antennatus, Bridled Burrfish

Chilomycterus antennatus (Cuvier, 1816)

Bridled Burrfish

Body rotund, can be inflated; head wide and blunt; eyes large; a large (eye-sized) tentacle over eye; nasal organ a short, hollow 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; tail fin with 9 (9-10) rays; no pelvic fins; body and head covered with relatively few, short (< eye), fixed, 3-rooted spines that are triangular and flattened in cross-section, and, in some cases reduced to plates under skin; no spines wholly atop tail base.

Yellowish brown; head, body and tail base with many small black spots; 2 or more large black, white ringed blotches on mid-back and another at front base of dorsal fin; iris gold, with a ring of black dots; no thin dark lines on body, no small black spots on fins, except tail fin of large fish. Juvenile: bright yellow with large white, black-ringed spots.

Size: grows to about 30 cm; the young lead a pelagic existence until about 3 cm.

Inhabits seagrass beds and adjacent reefs.

Depth: 1-53 m.

The SE USA through the Caribbean.

Note: Waifs in the E Atlantic.