Spotfin Burrfish

Photo courtesy from Ryan Photographic

Spotfin Burrfish (Chilomycterus reticulatus)

Other Name: Few-spined Porcupinefish
Max. Length: 69.7 centimeters
Length at 1st Maturity: 38.9 centimeters
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Depth Range: 20 – 100 meters (60 – 300 feet)
Frequency: Abundant in the world’s tropical coral reefs

Photo courtesy from CSIRO

Same with its close relative in the porcupinefish family, a spotfin burrfish is one of the fish species that will give an impression that it is smiling at you while you are scuba diving in Cocos Island. But this supposedly nice welcome gesture, is in fact, a false grin created by its facial expression courtesy from its large mouth with fused teeth and no frontal groove on the lips. Their round and inflatable bodies are usually colored brown-grey with black angular bands and dark spots that is scattered around the body. The head of a spotfin burrfish are bluntly shaped with eyes that are relatively large.

Nose of a Spotfin Burrfish indicates Age

If the quantity and size of dark spots indicates age for a longspined porcupinefish, then a good indicator for age in a spotfin burrfish is their nose. When it is still a juvenile, the nasal openings of a spotfin burrfish comes in a small hole each having a tentacle protrusion. As a spotfin burrfish reaches maturity, their nasal openings which started as a small hole will develop into a large hole that closely resembles like an open-pit cup.

Difference between a Spotfin Burrfish and a Spotfin Porcupinefish

Photo courtesy from Randal, J. E.

In a single glance, spotting the difference between the two species can be quite difficult. But if you try to focus your sight on them, you will notice that there are actually several differences. First, we focus on the dark spots where you can clearly see it when they are not bloated. A spotfin porcupinefish has a uniform small-sized spots while a spotfin burrfish are varied in size. In terms of spikes, you can clearly see that the spines of a spotfin porcupinefish are larger and longer compared to the ones in a spotfin burrfish. In terms of quantity in spikes, a spotfin porcupinefish has more spines embedded in its body while a spotfin burrfish only has a few, thus earning it another name: the few-spined porcupinefish.

When the two species are bloated, there is one thing that stands out in their difference – the shape of their spikes. When a spotfin burrfish is threatened or provoked, you can clearly observe that their spines are short, triangular in shape and immovable as compared to the ones in a spotfin porcupinefish which are long, thin and slender.

TTX and other Poisonous Substance

Similar to its close relative – the porcupinefish, the body of a spotfin burrfish houses some of the world’s deadliest neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin or TTX for short. The powerful toxin is embedded in the internal organs that can contaminate the entire body gut when raptured. This is on top of the fact that their body houses a high volume in parasitic organisms.

This means that the poison cannot be transmitted to a person just by mere touching or holding it. The real danger lies when you eat a spotfin burrfish. A simple slice of the belly will rapture their internal organs which houses the poison causing it to contaminate the entire fish. And for those hard-headed persons who continues to eat this poisonous fish and for those who are interested to try, may we again remind you that the possible consequence of eating the meat of a spotfin burrfish can be experienced six feet under the ground where death can set-in within just a few hours after consumption.

On the lighter side, many specialty restaurants particularly in Japan offers this exotic dish where the so-called master chefs are highly trained to perfectly cut, slice and take off the poison of this fish. Otherwise, if they do it wrong, the consequence would be lethal. But for us, despite knowing that this dish is expertly and perfectly handled, we still suggest that you take in other seafood menu that are guaranteed to be safe and delicious. After all, nobody is perfect in something.

Reference

Fishbase: www.fishbase.org

IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species: www.iucnredlist.org

Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org

Video courtesy from Néstor Echedey Bosch Guerra

About Tristan Paylado
Tristan is a marine biologist and a CMAS 2-Star Dive Instructor
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