Globefish

About this species

The slender-spined porcupine fish or globefish is a porcupinefish of the family Diodontidae, found in the waters of southern Australia, as far north as Port Jackson to Geraldton, Western Australia. It is most common in Port Phillip Bay and the coastal waters of Tasmania in shallow coastal waters and under manmade jetties. It is known to occur at a depth range of 1 to 70 m.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Slender-spined porcupine fish”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 556 records
February: 395 records
March: 536 records
April: 411 records
May: 456 records
June: 401 records
July: 523 records
August: 734 records
September: 886 records
October: 1,588 records
November: 555 records
December: 562 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–48 m · Deepest record: 405 m

0–10 m: 357 records
10–20 m: 46 records
20–30 m: 171 records
30–40 m: 20 records
40–50 m: 93 records
50–60 m: 40 records
60–70 m: 15 records
70–80 m: 2 records
80–90 m: 4 records
90–100 m: 3 records
100–110 m: 2 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 14–27 °C

12–14 °C: 13 records
14–16 °C: 64 records
16–18 °C: 17 records
18–20 °C: 21 records
20–22 °C: 6 records
22–24 °C: 1 records
24–26 °C: 0 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) Lawrence Hylton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Lawrence Hylton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) leonie_rennie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) ttsquid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Moss Hepworth, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Belinda Forbes, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Christopher Mark, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Globefish, Slender-spined Porcupine Fish

Other scientific names: Atopomycterus nichthemerus, Diodon nycthemerus

Similar species

Balloonfish
Diodon holocanthus
Porcupinefish
Diodon hystrix
Black-blotched porcupinefish
Diodon liturosus
Pelagic porcupinefish
Diodon eydouxii
Australian Burrfish
Allomycterus pilatus
Spotfin burrfish
Chilomycterus reticulatus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,892 open-data records from 1912 to 2023.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.