The Puffer Forum

I visited Belize during the summer and got some pics of a couple puffers. I was looking to see if anyone can ID them.











Had to add the horse, it took 2 hours to find.

No problem.

The tobies are

Canthigaster rostrata Caribbean sharpnose-puffers

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Photos/Thu ... hp?ID=4291

The one with the spot lines at the border to the belly are:

Sphoeroides spengleri Bandtail puffers, juveniles

http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Photos/Thu ... hp?ID=1241

Sorry I forgot the pony:

Hippocampus reidi, aka Longsnout seahorse

Awesome pictures!

Beautiful puffers, and the seahorse too. I really fell in love with the long, slim puffer. Well, I fell in love with the other puffer too, to be honest. And the seahorse!

The C. rostrata was actually fairly common. It is sort of hard to tell in the pics, but it has some blue irridenscent lines running the length of its body. The largest I saw was about 4" and the smallest I saw was the size if my pinky fingernail (~1 cm). Don't ask me how I found it, I just sort of found it. It was about 75 ft off the shore near the edge of the seagrass meadow. It lived in an old conch shell near a family of damselfish.

The one pictured above is about 3".

This was the only S. spengleri Bandtail I saw. This one was probably about 3.5 - 4.5". It had little frilly things on its body that I suppose helped it blend in with the seagrass. They were located on the top and sides of the body, none on the belly. I found this guy watching me as I hunted the meadow looking for the horses.

These are the only types of puffers in Belize I managed to get pics of. There was at least one other that I saw on the barrier reef, but wasn't fast enough to get an identifiable pic. All but one puffer (C. rostrata) was living on or near the meadow.

Thanks for the IDs!

Nice pics!

i love pictures of puffers in the wild

I love finding the wild puffers and checking out what they do when not in a glass box. I don't think I could live in a glass box so I can see why some go nutty. It is somewhat refreshing to see them in their natural state.