''Lagocephalus lunaris'', also known as the lunartail puffer, is a species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family

Tetraodontidae Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, ...

. It lives in areas in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

, and its habitat is areas in coastal marine waters, at depths of up to 150 meters, in sandy bottoms, coastal reefs,

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s. This fish is listed as

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

, due to it overlapping many

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity ...

s. It has a maximum length of 45 centimeters. It eats

marine invertebrates Marine invertebrates are invertebrate animals that live in marine habitats, and make up most of the macroscopic life in the oceans. It is a polyphyletic blanket term that contains all marine animals except the marine vertebrates, including the ...

as its food source, and contains

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

that makes it dangerous to consume.

Endoparasites Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ent ...

of the lunartail puffer include '' Angusticaecum tetrodonti'', '' Bianium arabicum'', '' Bianium plicitum'', '' Caligus laminatus'', '' Maculifer indicus'', '' Neodiploproctodaeum karachiense'', ''

Notoporus stunkardi ''Notoporus'' is a genus of trematodes in the family Opecoelidae Opecoelidae is a family of trematodes. It is the largest digenean family with over 90 genera and nearly 900 species, almost solely found in marine and freshwater teleost fishes.B ...

'', and '' Opistholebes amplicoelus''.

References

Marine fish of Australia Fish of India Fish of Indonesia Fish of China Fish of Vietnam Fish of Japan Least concern biota of Australia Least concern biota of Asia Least concern biota of Africa

lunartail puffer ''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 Coast, coastal marine waters, at depths of up to 150 meters, in sa ...

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