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Members of the diodontidae, species of the genus diodon are usually known as porcupinefishes or balloonfishes.
of the genus diodon have; They differ from the swelltoads and burrfishes (genus Cyclichthys
Cyclichthys

Members of the family diodontidae, species of the genus Cyclicthys are usually known as swelltoads....
 and Chilomycterus), which have fixed, rigid spines.







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Members of the diodontidae, species of the genus diodon are usually known as porcupinefishes or balloonfishes.

Distinguishing features

Fish of the genus diodon have;
  • two-rooted, moveable spines (actually modified scales) distributed over their bodies.
  • beak-like jaws, used to crush their hard-shelled prey (crustacean
    Crustacean

    Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
    s and molluscs).
They differ from the swelltoads and burrfishes (genus Cyclichthys
Cyclichthys

Members of the family diodontidae, species of the genus Cyclicthys are usually known as swelltoads....
 and Chilomycterus), which have fixed, rigid spines.

Defense mechanisms

  • Like pufferfishes they can inflate themselves, making their spines stand perpendicular to the skin. When inflated they pose a major difficulty to their predators: a large diodon fully inflated can choke a shark
    Shark

    Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
     to death.
  • They may be poisonous, through the accumulation of tetrodotoxin
    Tetrodotoxin

    Tetrodotoxin is a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote. Tetrodotoxin blocks action potentials in nerves by binding to the pores of the voltage-gated, fast sodium channels in neuron cell membrane....
     or ciguatera
    Ciguatera

    Ciguatera is a foodborne illness poisoning in humans caused by eating marine species whose flesh is contaminated with a toxin known as ciguatoxin, which is present in many microorganisms living in tropical waters....
    .

Species

  • Pelagic porcupinefish, Diodon eydouxii (Brisout de Barneville, 1846)
  • Long-spine porcupinefish
    Long-spine porcupinefish

    The long-spine porcupinefish is also known as the spiny balloonfish....
    , Diodon holocanthus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Spot-fin porcupinefish
    Spot-fin porcupinefish

    Also known as the porcupinefish or porcupine pufferfish....
    , Diodon hystrix (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • Black-blotched porcupinefish
    Black-blotched porcupinefish

    Range*Indo-Pacific: Red Sea, East Africa to the Society Islands, north to southern Japan, south to New South Wales.*Southeast Atlantic: southeast coast of South Africa....
    , Diodon liturosus (Shaw
    George Shaw

    George Shaw was an England botanist and zoologist.Shaw was born at Bierton, Buckinghamshire and was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, receiving his M.A....
    , 1804)
  • Slender-spined porcupine fish
    Slender-spined porcupine fish

    The slender-spined porcupine fish, Diodon nichthemerus, is a porcupinefish of the family Diodontidae, found in the waters of southern Australia, as far north as Port Jackson to Geraldton, Western Australia....
    , Diodon nicthemerus (Cuvier
    Cuvier

    Cuvier may refer to:* Georges Cuvier, , French naturalist and zoologist* Fr?d?ric Cuvier , French zoologist* Cuvier, Jura, a commune of the Jura d?partement in France...
    , 1818)