Common names: porcupinefish (English), balloonfish (English), pez erizo (Espanol)
 
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 tentacle with 2 openings; teeth fused into a strong, parrot-like beak that lacks 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 13-15; anal 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; 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 and another across middle of back; a large oval brown blotch above each pectoral fin and another around dorsal-fin base; fins plain.


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.