Pufferfish are a large family of fishes, also called blowfish, toadies or other names. Puffers are the second most poisonous vertebrate animal in the world (after a poisonous frog) and should never be eaten, unless you have a taste for sushi and a death wish.
Valentin's Sharpnose Puffer
Also called: Saddled puffer, black saddled toby
Scientific name: Canthigaster valentini
White-Spotted Puffer
Scientific name: Dicotylichthys punctulatus
I'm not sure about this identification, but it's the closest description I could find for this guy, which I saw all around the Lembeh Strait. The eyes of several individuals had this same strange 'faceted' reflection to them.
Three-Bar Porcupinefish
Scientific name: Dicotylichthys punctulatus
I'm not sure about this identification, but it's the closest description I could find for this guy, which I saw all around the Lembeh Strait. The eyes of several individuals had this same strange 'faceted' reflection to them.
Starry Pufferfish
Scientific name: Arothron stellatus
These guys get to be quite big. This one was approaching a meter long, I think. They're normally hiding under large table corals, so I was lucky to find this one swimming around.
Map Pufferfish
Scientific name: Arothron mappa
Long-Horned Cowfish
Scientific name: Lactoria cornuta
Black-Spotted Puffer
Also called: Dog-faced Puffer
Scientific name: Arothron nigropunctatus
The "dog-faced" alternate name for this puffer is quite appropriate. They can be as cute as puppies. I photographed the above sample on a shallow reef in the Maldives, and he wasn't as shy as many other fish, but that's generally true of all puffers. I guess being poisonous gives you a certain superiority.