Please ID this puffer

[jdak]

Family Diodontidae are the Porcupine or Burrfishes... Bob Fenner
Chilomycterus are still included in the diodontidae family from my understanding.
I believe the whole family is known to be nocturnal as well.

[Corvus]

You can call them whatever you want: spiny puffer, porcupine puffer, burrfish ... It's the scientific names that count and with which species are defined.

In the US it appears that those species with erectible spines such as Diodon holocanthus are often, but by far not always, called porcupine puffer and those with always erected spines such as Cyclichthys orbicularis are called burrfish. But this is nothing official or binding and differs in other countries/languages. The scientific names however, are the same everywhere.

In English speaking Indonesia (where it might very well come from) the Cyclichthys orbicularis is indeed called "Rounded porcupinefish", so calling it porcupine fish or similar in fact is not that wrong at all. The most used common name in English is "Birdbeak burrfish" another one is "Orbicular burrfish"

A big inaccuracy in English is to call these Diodontids "puffers", which gets them easily confused with "real" puffers from the family Tetraodontidae. Those are somewhat related, but indeed a different family... You wouldn't call a Kennedy a Bush, although at some point in the past it's likely they have some common ancestor...

[pufferpuggirl]

You can call them whatever you want: spiny puffer, porcupine puffer, burrfish ... It's the scientific names that count and with which species are defined.

In the US it appears that those species with erectible spines such as Diodon holocanthus are often, but by far not always, called porcupine puffer and those with always erected spines such as Cyclichthys orbicularis are called burrfish. But this is nothing official or binding and differs in other countries/languages. The scientific names however, are the same everywhere.

In English speaking Indonesia (where it might very well come from) the Cyclichthys orbicularis is indeed called "Rounded porcupinefish", so calling it porcupine fish or similar in fact is not that wrong at all. The most used common name in English is "Birdbeak burrfish" another one is "Orbicular burrfish"

A big inaccuracy in English is to call these Diodontids "puffers", which gets them easily confused with "real" puffers from the family Tetraodontidae. Those are somewhat related, but indeed a different family... You wouldn't call a Kennedy a Bush, although at some point in the past it's likely they have some common ancestor...

Most interesting!

[Myaj]

LOL.. so quick lesson on species names.. if the first name in the latin name is different, are they considered a different species or do you have to go back farther on the "family tree" so to speak?

I can say that Paris, my Chilomycterus schoepfi, is what here in the states we refer to as a type of burrfish.. but anyways, "she" is definately NOT nocturnal. In fact, when the lights are off, she goes and lays down in her corner of the tank and sleeps. When the lights come on, she starts swimming around again. Of course, that's likely learned behavior, but that's what I meant above.. they will adjust to the lighting and feeding schedule as they settle in.

[Corvus]

The first name is the genus name the second name is the species name. If the first name is the same two animals belong to the same genus. If the second and the first name are the same they belong to the same species. Species is a true natural unit, only members of one species are per definition capable to produce fertile offspring. Genus is a man-made unit where similar species are put together to show (that we think) that they are more closely related than other species.

The puffer of this thread and Paris belong to two different genera, but are still in the same family, which is the next higher man-made category.

While many/most diodontids are active around the morning and evening in nature, in captivity most get active during day, because that's when the food is around and there are no predators which can see them more easily in the light. It's the same with morays: Mostly nocturnal in nature, but once truly settled in the aquarium also generally looking for food during the day.