Tetraodontidae Bonaparte 1831

Angulo, Arturo, Betts, Joel T., González-Alemán, Néstor J., Castañeda, Edgar, Berghe, Eric Van Den, Elías, Diego J., Mcmahan, Caleb D. & Matamoros, Wilfredo A., 2023, Continental fishes of Nicaragua: diversity, distribution and conservation status; with an annotated and illustrated checklist of species and an identification guide to families, Zootaxa 5376 (1), pp. 1-89 : 81

Family Tetraodontidae Bonaparte 1831 ( Fig. 5F ). Pufferfishes; Tamboriles, Botetes, Peces Globo, Cuches, Cuchisapos, Tamboretas, Tambuleros, Tamborines

Description: Body heavy, thick, inflatable; up to 100 cm in length, but usually less than 30 cm; head large, blunt; eyes high on sides of head; jaws as a beak composed of 4 fused heavy powerful teeth with a central suture on each jaw; a slit-like gill opening in front of the pectoral fin base; dorsal and anal fins usually each with 7–18 soft rays; caudal fin with 10 principal rays and no procurrent rays, moderately forked to rounded ( Robertson & Allen 2015, Nelson et al. 2016). Distribution: Marine, with several taxa entering and occurring in brackish and freshwaters; tropical and subtropical portions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans (Nelson et al. 2016). One genus and two species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Families of continental fishes of Nicaragua, part 4; Gerreidae (A), Haemulidae (B), Sciaenidae (C), Lobotidae (D), Ephippidae (E) and Tetraodontidae (F). Illustrations adapted (with permission) from Nelson et al. (2016) and Angulo et al. (2021).