Diodon - Porcupinefishes

Porcupinefishes or balloonfishes, are any of the various species of the genus Diodon, the type genus of Diodontidae.

Fish of the genus Diodon have:

• two-rooted, movable spines (which are derived from modified scales) distributed over their bodies.
• beak-like jaws, used to crush their hard-shelled prey (crustaceans and molluscs).

They differ from the swelltoads and burrfishes (genera Cyclichthys and Chilomycterus, respectively), which, in contrast, have fixed, rigid spines.

Like true pufferfishes of the related family Tetraodontidae, porcupinefishes can inflate themselves.
They may be poisonous, through the accumulation of tetrodotoxin or ciguatera.