Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus, Juvenile. Fish caught off the beach at Buena Vista, Baja California Sur, February 2021. Length: 8.4 cm (3.3 inches).

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off  Point Palmilla, Baja California Sur, March 2018. Length: 25 cm (9.8 inches).

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Loreto, Baja California Sur, May 2016. Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Chris Wheaton, Fullerton, California.

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Fish caught from shore in Acapulco, Guerrero, February 2017. Length: 22 cm (8.7 inches). Catch, photograph and identification courtesy of Ben Cantrell, Peoria, Illinois.

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Fish caught from shore in Las Barilles, Baja California Sur, December 2019. Rarely caught from shore! Length: 26 cm (10.2 inches). Catch and photograph courtesy of Brad Murakami, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo. Fish identification courtesy of Dr. Phil Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, November 2018. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.

Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2018. Photographs courtesy of Maude Jette, Dive Zihuantanejo,  www.Divezihuantanejo.com.

The Longnose Puffer, Sphoeroides lobatus, is a member of the Puffer or Tetraodontidae Family, that is also known as the Lobeskin Puffer, and in Mexico as botete verrugoso or simply botete. Globally, there are twenty-three species in the genus Sphoeroides, of which eleven are found in Mexican waters, six in the Atlantic and five in the Pacific Ocean.

The Longnose Puffer has a moderately elongated body that are inflatable. They are an olive-brown color with mottling and numerous small light blue spots. Their ventral side is white and unusually flat. They have a horizontal row of short brown bars at the transition between their lower sides and the underside of their body. They have skin flaps on their back with a large black blotch behind each. Their head has a long narrow snout and is concave between their large elevated eyes. Their anal and dorsal fins are small and similarly shaped, have short bases and 6 to 8 rays, and are found well back on their body with the anal fin being slightly behind the dorsal fin; their caudal fin is deeply convex; and, they do not have pelvic fins. Their body is covered with small denticles but is without scales.

The Longnose Puffer reside on the bottom and are found in sandy and weedy areas at depths up to 107 m (350 feet). They reach a maximum length of 30 cm (12 inches), as documented by a fish that I caught. As of January 1, 2024, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 0.45 kg (1 lbs 0 oz) with the fish caught in coastal waters off Buena Vista, Baja California Sur, July 2019. They are exceedingly well camouflaged and have the ability to blow themselves up like balloons, presumably as a defense mechanism to deter predator attacks. The Longnose Puffer is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.

The Longnose Puffer is a resident of Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean and has a wide being found in all waters with the exception that they are absent from the extreme northern portions of the Sea of Cortez.

The Longnose Puffer is an easy fish to identify due to its coloration and cannot be confused with any other species. However, the one exception is that it is somewhat similar to the larger, very rare, and recently discovered Naked Puffer, Sphoeroides lispus (smooth spineless skin, three dark bars on the back, small white dots with streaks on the upper body).

From a conservation perspective the Longnose Puffer is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are a frequent by-catch being very very accessible via hook and line and caught off the bottom in 30 m (100-foot) waters utilizing small hooks tipped with cut squid. They are a “catch and release” that quickly return to the deep. They are most definitely one of the fish with the greatest personality in the ocean; on several occasions I have seen them sitting in two inches of water on the panga floor processing water which is a true visual phenomena. Note: Like many Puffers, the Longnose Puffer is reputed to be highly poisonous, even fatal, if eaten, due to the potential presence of the potent neurotoxins saxitoxin and/or tetrodotoxin, which is found in their skin, viscera, and gonads and is believed to protect them from predation by larger fish.