English Name: Yellow boxfish
Family: OSTRACIIDAE
Local Name: Gonu
Order: Tetraodontiformes
Size: Max. 40 cm
Specimen: MRS/0040/86
Distinctive Characters: Dorsal fin with 9 rays. Anal fin with 9 rays. Pectoral fin with 11 rays. Carapace quadrangular in cross section, the sides concave. Body becoming more elongate with growth. Large adults with a bump anteriorly on snout. Caudal fin rounded.
Colour: Small juveniles bright yellow with small black spots. Larger fish brownish yellow with one white spot edged in black or rimmed with small black spots on each polygonal plate. Largest fish purplish brown, spots on carapace faint or absent, the grooves between polygonal plates yellow, specially ventrally on cheek. Fins with small dark spots on rays.
Habitat and Biology: Common on reefedge and slope to depths of about 35 m. Solitary and shy species, always seek shelterbelow overhangs in the reef. Omnivorous.
Distribution: Indo-Pacific.
Remarks: Osiracion cuhicus. like other boxfishes produce a skin toxin when alarmed. Previously, recorded as 0. tuhercu/atus Linnaeus, in the Catalogue of Fishes of the Maldives, Vol.1, page 102.