A burrfish rather than a porcupinefish, and the difference is in the spines: these are short, three-rooted and permanently erect, where a porcupinefish's are long and lie flat until it inflates. Each spine sits on a dark spot, which is what names this species.
Being permanently armored changes the animal. It still inflates - pumping water into an elastic stomach until it is a rigid ball - but the spines are not the point of the inflation; the size is. A fish that is always prickly is a fish that does not need to be fast, and it is not.
It hunts at night, crushing snails, hermit crabs and urchins with a beak of four fused teeth that grows continuously against the wear. By day it hangs under a ledge, usually in the same one.
Like all its family it carries tetrodotoxin in the skin and organs, acquired from bacteria in its food. It is not eaten anywhere, which is one of the reasons burrfish are common on reefs that have been stripped of everything else.
The genus. Cyclichthys Kaup 1855 - cyclos (round or circular) + ichthys (fish). ETYFish
- short fixed spines standing out all over the body, never laid flat
- yellow-brown above with a dark spot at the base of each spine
- large green-gold eyes and a beak of fused teeth
- length up to 34 cm
