Species: Diodon holocanthus, Freckled porcupinefish, Long-spine balloonfish
tail base: without spines
many large erectile spines
dark bar through eye
fins - no spots
Diodon holocanthus Linnaeus, 1758
Freckled porcupinefish, Long-spine balloonfish
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 50 cm.
Inhabits reefs and open sand-rubble bottoms.
Depth: 1-100 m.
Circumtropical distribution; southern California to the Gulf of California to northern Peru and all the offshore islands.
High Resolution Map Download
- Salinity
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- Brackish
- Marine
- Inshore/Offshore
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- Inshore Only
- Inshore
- Water Column Position
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- Bottom only
- Bottom
- Habitat
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- Estuary
- Rocks
- Sand & gravel
- Reef (rock/coral/oyster)
- Mud
- Soft bottom (mud/sand/gravel/beach/estuary/mangrove/seagrass)
- Reef and soft bottom
- Reef associated (reef + edges-water column & soft bottom)
- Corals
- FishBase Habitat
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- Reef Associated
- Feeding Group
-
- Data
- Carnivore
- Diet
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- Mobile benthic crustacea (shrimps/crabs)
- Mobile benthic gastropods/bivalves
- Data
- Sea-stars/cucumbers/urchins
- Egg Type
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- No data
- Pelagic
- Pelagic larva
- Global Endemism
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- TEP non-endemic
- East Pacific + Atlantic (East +/or West)
- All Pacific (West + Central + East)
- All species
- East Pacific + all Atlantic (East+West)
- Circumtropical ( Indian + Pacific + Atlantic Oceans)
- Transisthmian (East Pacific + Atlantic of Central America)
- "Transpacific" (East + Central &/or West Pacific)
- Regional Endemism
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- Island (s)
- Eastern Pacific non-endemic
- Continent + Island (s)
- Continent
- Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) non-endemic
- All species
- Residency
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- Resident
- Climate Zone
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- Northern Subtropical (Cortez Province + Sinaloan Gap)
- North Temperate (Californian Province &/or Northern Gulf of California)
- Northern Tropical (Mexican Province to Nicaragua + Revillagigedos)
- South Temperate (Peruvian Province )
- Equatorial (Costa Rica to Ecuador + Galapagos, Clipperton, Cocos, Malpelo)
- IUCN Red List
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- Not evaluated / Listed
- CITES
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- Not listed
- Length Max
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- 50
- Depth Range Min
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- 1
- Depth Range Max
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- 100
