Fish ID Friday – Spotted Porcupinefish

Spotted Porcupinefish, the Diodon hystrix, are probably our favourite fish to spot on a dive. They are like blimps, hovering in the water with large, soulful eyes, they are timid, it is very hard to get a good full frontal photo, they will swim frantically away at a pace that I can barely keep up with and I don’t want to scare them further.  These fish are part of the puffer fish family, which can inflate their bodies by swallowing water to increase their size both for intimidation of predators and to make it more difficult for them to be swallowed. They also have spines which radiate out when that defence mechanism is triggered.