Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, toadle, honey toads, sugar toads, and sea squab. They are morphologically similar to the closely related porcupinefish, which have large external spines.
The fugu in Japanese, bogeo or bok (복) in Korean, and hétún in Standard Modern Chinese is a pufferfish, normally of the genus Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides, or a porcupinefish of the genus Diodon, or a dish prepared from these fish.
The white-spotted puffer fish is a medium to large-sized puffer fish, it can reach 50 cm length. It is light grey in color, or greyish or yellowish, and clearly covered with more or less regular white points, that become concentric contrasting white and dark grey lines that radiate around the eyes and pectoral fins. The ventral part is white. The "shoulder" is dark. It also has concentric contrasting white and dark grey lines that radiate around the eyes and pectoral fins. The white spotted puffer fish is poisonous.
The striped beakfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a knifejaw from the family Oplegnathidae. It is native to the north-western Pacific Ocean, though a smattering of records exist from other localities in the eastern Pacific such as Hawaii and Chile. Recently introduced – probably via ballast water – in the central Mediterranean, it is found very rarely from Malta to the northern Adriatic.
The daggertooth pike conger also known as the darkfin pike eel in Australia, to distinguish it from the related pike-eel, is a species of eel in the pike conger family, Muraenesocidae. They primarily live on soft bottoms in marine and brackish waters down to a depth of 800 m (2,600 ft), but may enter freshwater. They commonly grow to about 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length, but may grow as long as 2.2 m (7.2 ft). Daggertooth pike congers occur in the Red Sea, on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean, and in the West Pacific from Indochina to Japan. A single specimen was also reported in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel in 1982.
The red cornetfish, also known as the rough flutemouth, is a cornetfish of the family Fistulariidae, found in subtropical and tropical oceans worldwide, at depths between 10 m (33 ft) and 200 metres (660 ft). They are up to 2 m (6.6 ft) in length but rarely exceed 1 m (3.3 ft).
The yellow boxfish is a species of boxfish found in reefs throughout the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean as well as the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. Recorded occasionally since 2011 in the Levantine waters of the Mediterranean Sea which it likely entered via the Suez Canal, it is a species appreciated in the aquarium trade.
Pampus argenteus, the silver pomfret or white pomfret, is a species of butterfish that lives in the Indo-West Pacific, spanning the coastal waters of the Middle East, Eastern Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The species has been reported only twice, one hundred years apart, from the central Mediterranean Sea.
The spiny blaasop is a species of pufferfish. Originally native to the Indian Ocean, the southwestern Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean along the coast of South Africa, it has recently colonised the Levantine waters of the Mediterranean Sea, most likely as a Lessepsian migrant from the Red Sea or in ballast water. This species grows to a length of 5–15 cm. It is the only species in its genus.
The Guinean puffer, Sphoeroides marmoratus, is a species of the family Tetraodontidae, or pufferfishes. Found in the eastern Atlantic from Portugal to Angola, including Madeira, the Azores, Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, it has been recently recorded on rare, distinct occasions in the Alboran Sea, western Mediterranean Sea.
The Blotchfin dragonet is a species of dragonet native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. It also now occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, where it was first recorded in 1953 off Israel. It has since been observed in Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey and Rhodes (Greece). This species occurs at depths from 16 to 350 m and can grows to a length of 20 cm.
Scarus ghobban, also known as the blue-barred parrotfish, blue trim parrotfish, cream parrotfish, globe-headed parrotfish, green blotched parrotfish, yellow scale parrotfish, and bluechin parrotfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Scaridae.
Cryptocentrus caeruleopunctatus, commonly known as the harlequin prawn-goby, is a species of goby. It recently entered the Mediterranean Sea with large populations observed along the Israel coast. Before its recording in the Mediterranean this species was restricted to the Red Sea where it occurs on open sand bottoms of clear water reefs living in association with alpheid shrimps.
Lagocephalus sceleratus, commonly known as the silver-cheeked toadfish, or Sennin-fugu, is an extremely poisonous marine bony fish in the family Tetraodontidae.
Torquigener flavimaculosus is a pufferfish of the family Tetraodontidae, capable of very rapid body inflation when threatened. Native to the Western Indian Ocean, it is also found in the Indo Pacific from the Persian Gulf to the Seychelles. Recorded first in the Mediterranean Sea in 1987, following a likely migration through the Suez Canal, it is now expanding westward.
Vanderhorstia mertensi, Mertens' shrimp goby or the slender shrimp goby, is a ray-finned fish species native to the Red Sea, Japan, Papua-New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef. Male individuals can reach a length of 11 cm in total. In 2008 a first specimen was collected in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Gulf of Fethiye, southern Turkey, where it was found on sandy bottoms in the vicinity of beds of sea grass. It is now common in Israel, Turkey and Greece. According to the Mediterranean Science Commission this species most likely entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.
The specific name honours the German herpetologist Robert Mertens (1894-1975), the former director of the Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt, from whom the author, Klausewitz, learnt about the biological and ecological view of modern systematics and taxonomy.
The diamondback puffer is a species of pufferfish in the genus Lagocephalus.
Cephalopholis hemistiktos, the yellowfin hind, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a member of the family Serranidae, which also includes the anthias and sea basses. This species is found from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf and the coast of Pakistan. A single specimen was filmed in 2009 in the Mediterranean Sea, off Malta.
Lagocephalus suezensis is a species of pufferfish of the family Tetraodontidae. It is native to the western Indian Ocean and recorded in the Mediterranean Sea since 1977. It has since spread in the eastern Mediterranean Basin. It reaches 18 cm in total length and inhabits sandy and muddy bottoms down to 40 m. It is often confused with Lagocephalus sceleratus in Australia.
