Fish Identification Photos: Oceanic Puffer, Lagocephalus lagocephalus: The Oceanic Puffer is a very easy fish species to recognize. It is characterized by its dark blue-green head and upper body, silver flanks with black spots, and a white belly.

The Oceanic Puffer has an elongated body with an elongated snout, a small mouth, and a protruding beak. It has pointed anal and dorsal fins, a slender tail base, a caudal fin that is slightly concave, and the fins are dark except for the lower third of the pectoral fins which are white.

Overall, the body of the Oceanic Puffer is smooth except that there are small spines on the belly from the chin to the anus.

The Oceanic Puffer cannot be easily confused with any other fish species. It is a pelagic fish found in the first 60 feet of the water column. It reaches a maximum length of 24 inches.

The Oceanic Puffer is found in all Mexican waters of both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts, with the exception that it is absent from the Sea of Cortez.

Like many puffers, the Oceanic Puffer is reputed to be highly poisonous, even fatal, if eaten, due to the presence of tetrodotoxin believed to protect it from predation by larger fish.

The Oceanic Puffer is a member of the Tetraodontidae Family. The Puffers are normally covered with spines and they have the ability to blow themselves up like balloons which is presumably a defense mechanism. Many contain the toxin tetrodotoxin, found in the skin, viscera and gonads. The Puffers do not have pelvic fins. They have formidable, strong beak-like teeth. Thus they are able to feast on a wide variety of species including the crown-of-thorns starfish.

Globally there have been 121 species of Tetraodontidae identified, of which nine are found in Mexico's Sea of Cortez.

Oceanic Puffer, Lagocephalus lagocephalus: Donated to Mexfish.com by the commercial pangueros of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, in December 2008.  Size 16 inches. Description and photos courtesy of John Snow.