SEA Undersea

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.

Black-Spotted Puffer
Black-Spotted Puffer
Long-Horned Cowfish
Long-Horned Cowfish
Map Pufferfish
Map Pufferfish
Starry Pufferfish
Starry Pufferfish
Three-Bar Porcupinefish
Three-Bar Porcupinefish
Valentin's sharpnose puffer
Valentin's sharpnose puffer
White-Spotted Puffer
White-Spotted Puffer

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.