Find a Fish
Spotfin Porcupinefish
Chilomycterus reticulatus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Above and below: A Spotfin Porcupinefish at a depth of 5 m, Bass Point, New South Wales, January 2004. Photo © S. Schulz. View larger image.
All images below: A juvenile Spotfin Porcupinefish caught by hand at the surface (water depth 80 m), Bird Rock, Bay of Islands, New Zealand, February 2008. Photo © C. Worthington. View larger image.
The dorsal surface of the fish, which is now in the collection of the Auckland Museum. Photo © C. Worthington. View larger image.
The Spotfin Porcupinefish is grey above and white below. It has dark spots on the body and fins. There are short immovable spines on the head and body.
The species has a dark bar below the eye and another at the rear of the head. There may be a faint bar in the pectoral region and another before the dorsal fin.
The Spotfin Porcupinefish grows to 75 cm in length. It feeds on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Young fish up to 20 cm in length are pelagic. Adults live on rocky reefs, coral reefs and soft bottoms in depths down to 100 m.
It has a patchy distribution in tropical and subtropical marine waters worldwide.
In Australia it is known from north-western Western Australia and northern Queensland to northern New South Wales. It has also been recorded from Lord Howe Island. The fish in the upper images were well south of their recorded distribution.
The Spotfin Porcupinefish looks similar to the Three-bar Porcupinefish. The latter species lacks spots on the fins and has more spines on the head and body. It occurs in more southern waters on Australia's east coast.
View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.
Related links
- Spiny Pufferfish jaw page.
- View the Family Diodontidae list
- View the Spiny Pufferfishes list
Further reading
- Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 292.
- Leis, J.M. Diodontidae. Porcupinefishes (burrfishes). in Carpenter, K.E. & V.H. Niem (Eds). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 6. Bony Fishes part 4 (Labridae to Latimeriidae), estuarine crocodiles, sea turtles, sea snakes and marine mammals. FAO, Rome. Pp. iii-v, 3381-4218.
- Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 330.
- Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
