Golden Toadfish

Lagocephalus lunaris

Fish
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth14–134 m
Water temperature15–30 °C
Best monthsAugust and October
How commonOccasional

About this species

Lagocephalus lunaris, also known as the lunartail puffer, is a species of fish in the family Tetraodontidae. It lives in areas in the Indo-Pacific, and its habitat is areas in coastal marine waters, at depths of up to 150 meters, in sandy bottoms, coastal reefs, estuaries and mangroves.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Lunartail puffer”, 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: 18 records
February: 29 records
March: 14 records
April: 27 records
May: 37 records
June: 37 records
July: 11 records
August: 62 records
September: 48 records
October: 88 records
November: 49 records
December: 18 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 14–134 m · Deepest record: 207 m

0–10 m: 19 records
10–20 m: 32 records
20–30 m: 26 records
30–40 m: 30 records
40–50 m: 19 records
50–60 m: 20 records
60–70 m: 19 records
70–80 m: 14 records
80–90 m: 32 records
90–100 m: 5 records
100–110 m: 11 records
110+ m: 96 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–30 °C

14–16 °C: 1 records
16–18 °C: 0 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 10 records
22–24 °C: 13 records
24–26 °C: 45 records
26–28 °C: 192 records
28–30 °C: 93 records

Names and classification

English: Golden Toadfish, Green Rrough-backed Puffer, Lunartail puffer, Lunar-tail Pufferfish, moontail blassop, Moontail Puffer, Rough Golden Puffer, Rough Golden Pufferfish, Rough Golden Toadfish, Spinyback Toadfish

Names in 4 more languages

Filipino: Butete
Japanese: Dokusabafugu, ドクサバフグ
Thai: ปลาปักเป้าหางวงเดือน
Simplified Chinese: 月兔頭魨, 月尾兔頭魨, 粟色河魨, 規仔

Other scientific names: Spheroides lunaris, Sphoerodon lunaris, Sphoeroides lunaris, Tetrodon lunaris

Similar species

Silverstripe blaasop
Lagocephalus sceleratus
Diamondback Puffer
Lagocephalus guentheri
Bristly puffer
Arothron hispidus
Guineafowl puffer
Arothron meleagris
Narrow-lined toadfish
Arothron immaculatus
Narrow-lined Puffer
Arothron manilensis

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).
778 open-data records from 1801 to 2021.

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