---
title: Silver-cheeked Toadfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus)
scientific_name: Lagocephalus sceleratus
common_name: Silver-cheeked Toadfish
taxon: Puffers
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-01T22:25:56.456Z
updated: 2026-08-12T10:43:24.498Z
tags: Silver-cheeked Toadfish, Lagocephalus sceleratus, Puffers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/puffers/silver-cheeked-toadfish
---

# Silver-cheeked Toadfish (*Lagocephalus sceleratus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Puffers (*Tetraodontidae*)
- **Size:** up to 1.1 m
- **Weight:** 9 Kg
- **Depth:** 10-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and open bottom off the reef, sometimes in midwater
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- large silver puffer with a dark back and a bright silver band along the cheek and flank
- small dark spots over the back, none on the pale belly
- four heavy fused teeth forming a beak, visible from the front
- length up to 1.1 m

A big silver puffer to 1.1 m (43 in), dark above with a bright silver band along the cheek and flank, spotted over the back. It is faster and more streamlined than the reef puffers and spends its time over open bottom rather than among coral.

It carries enough tetradotoxin to kill an adult, and unlike most puffers here it is regularly caught on hook and line. That combination has made it a public health problem: since the species came through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean it has caused repeated poisonings and several deaths there, and it is banned from sale across the region.

The beak is the other hazard. Four fused teeth in a jaw powerful enough to crush crab shells will take a finger off a fisherman removing a hook, and bites happen every season.

It is a strong swimmer and a competent predator, taking crabs, cephalopods and fish, and it grows large enough to be conspicuous. Here it is a native part of the fauna and simply an animal to admire from a distance; in the Mediterranean it is an invasion with a body count.

## Also known as

- **English:** silverstripe blaasop, Silver-cheeked Toadfish, Giant Toadfish
- **Arabic:** سمك الضفدع فضي الخدين, ينفوخ فضي الشريط, ينفوخ فضي
- **Hebrew:** לגינון מוארך, לגינון
- **French:** Ballon à bande argentée, Poisson-ballon à bande argentée
- **Italian:** Pesce palla argenteo
- **German:** Hasenkopf-Kugelfisch, Silber-Kugelfisch
- **Greek:** Ασημένιος λαγοκέφαλος, Λαγοκέφαλος
- **Portuguese:** Baiacu-prateado
- **Dutch:** Oceanische kogelvis, zilveren kogelvis
- **Czech:** čtverzubec stříbropásý
- **Japanese:** センニンフグ, Senninfugu
- **Chinese:** 仙人河魨, 凶兔頭魨, 圓斑扁尾魨
- **Russian:** Серебристый иглобрюх
- **CA:** Peix bola platejat
- **FI:** hopeaposkipallokala

## Scientific synonyms

- *Fugu sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Gastrophysis sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Gastrophysus sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Gastrophysus scleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Lagocephalus scleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Pleudranacanthus sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Pleuranacanthus sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Spheroides sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Sphoeroides sceleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Sphoeroides scleratus* (Gmelin, 1789)
- *Tetraodon bicolor* Brevoort, 1856
- *Tetraodon blochii* Castelnau, 1861
- *Tetraodon sceleratus* Gmelin, 1789
- *Tetrodon sceleratus* Gmelin, 1789

## Range

Djibouti, Mozambique, Red Sea, South Africa, Western Indian Ocean

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/puffers/silver-cheeked-toadfish)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*