Jeffords, Jeffrey

porcupinefish

Cyclichthys orbicularis

Closely related to pufferfish (family Tetraodontidae), the Rounded porcupinefish is one of the smaller of around 20 porcupinefish species (family Diodontidae), growing to only about seven or eight inches. The large eyes are well-adapted for night vision, when this species is most likely to be encountered. If threatened, this fish inflates itself by gulping water until it gradually becomes spherical in shape, completely rigid with its large, stiff spines pointed outward to prevent swallowing by potential predators. In addition to forcing the spines to point outward, the inflation of its body presents a larger appearance to help discourage predators.

About this image

Identification
Cyclichthys orbicularis (round burrfish)
Location

Luzon Island, Philippines

Contributors
Jeffrey N. Jeffords
photographer copyright holder identification
Subjects
Subject Live Animal
Type Photo
Life Stages and Gender adult/sexually mature
Behaviors locomotion swimming
Anatomy body parts eyes
Anatomy coloration/patterning cryptic
Behaviors communication aggressive display
Anatomy coloration/patterning aposematic

Conditions of use

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License .

To cite this page: Jeffords, J. 2004. "porcupinefish.jpg" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed {%B %d, %Y} at https://animaldiversity.org/collections/contributors/jeffrey_jeffords/fish/porcupinefish/

Last updated: 2004-35-14 / Generated: 2025-09-15 02:01

Privacy Consent Preference

This website uses some essential cookies to make it work. We’d like to set additional analytics cookies to analyze site usage. We won’t set these additional cookies unless you accept them.