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 Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
Note: Waifs in the E Atlantic.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Marine
- Marine Only
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Reef and soft bottom
- Rocks
- Corals
- Sand & gravel
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Submerged vegetation
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
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- Carnivore
- Data
- Diet
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- Data
- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Sea-stars/cucumbers/urchins
- Egg Type
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- Data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- West Atlantic Endemic
- All species.
- Greater Caribbean endemic
- Regional Endemism
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- Continent
- GC endemic
- Continent + Island (s)
- Insular primarily
- Island (s)
- All species..
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Equatorial (0-10N, Costa Rica / Venezuela)
- Subtropical (23-35N, Florida / Carolinas / Bermuda)
- Temperate (>35N)
- IUCN Red List
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- Least concern
- Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Depth Range Max
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- 53
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Length Max
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- 30
