Genus: Canthigaster, Sharpnose Puffer, Tobies
snout long, pointed
CANTHIGASTER
SHARPNOSE PUFFER, TOBIES
Robust, slightly compressed, inflatable body; head large, blunt; snout long and pointed; 1 pair of small hole-like nostrils; nape with crest between eyes and dorsal fin; eyes high on sides of head; jaws are a small beak composed of 4 fused heavy powerful teeth with a central suture on each jaw; a slit-like gill opening in front of the pectoral fin base; a single short- based dorsal fin at rear of body; a similar-shaped anal fin below the dorsal; no pelvic fins; no spines in the fins; tail fin rounded to bluntly straight, with 10 main rays; tough scaleless skin, head and body with scattered tiny spinules, no fleshy skin flaps.
A circumtropical genus with 33 species; 1 W Atlantic species, 1 endemic and 1 trans-Atlantic species in the Greater Caribbean.
