balloonfish

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Related to balloonfish: porcupine fish

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Noun

balloonfish - similar to but smaller than porcupinefish

Diodon holocanthus

spiny puffer - puffers having rigid or erectile spines

Diodon, genus Diodon - type genus of the Diodontidae

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In central Brazil, they were composed of massive schools of the balloonfish (Diodon holocanthus [Madureira et al.

Fish assemblages on the southeastern Brazilian Bight, sampled by midwater trawl during spring and summer seasons: species composition, abundance, and environmental drivers

The different English common names reflect the variation in color pattern: Whitespotted Puffer, Stripebelly Puffer, Spiny Balloonfish, and Stars-and-Stripes Puffer.

Color variation of the Puffer Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus) and comparison with A. reticularis (Bloch & Schneider)

When threatened, balloonfish take air or water into their stomachs to inflate their bodies to three times their normal size.