The blunthead puffer, ''Sphoeroides pachygaster'', is a
pufferfish
Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...
of the
family ''
Tetraodontidae'', found circumglobally in tropical and temperate seas, at depths between 50 and 500 m. First recorded in the
Mediterranean Sea off the Spanish coast in 1981, after entry via the strait of Gibraltar, it invaded the western basin in following decades and now reaches eastward the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea and Levantine waters. Its length is up to 40 cm. It is an edible species, and is commonly eaten in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, where it is referred to as 'yorito
fugu
The fugu (; ; ) in Japanese, ''bogeo'' (; 鰒魚) or ''bok'' () in Korean, and ''hétún'' (河豚; 河魨) in Standard Modern Chinese is a pufferfish, normally of the genus ''Takifugu'', ''Lagocephalus'', or ''Sphoeroides'', or a porcupinefish ...
', and has a lower concentration of
tetrodotoxin compared to other species of pufferfish prepared and eaten as fugu, but caution is needed as its liver contains dangerous levels of the toxin, and must not be eaten.
References
*
* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, ''Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand'', (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982)
Tetraodontidae
Fish described in 1848
{{Tetraodontiformes-stub