Shortnose boxfish
The Shortnose boxfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Ostraciidae, the boxfishes. This species is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Taxonomy
The shortnose boxfish was first formally described in 1785 by the German physician and naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch with its type locality given as the Nile Delta, Egypt, probably erroneously. This species is classified in the genus Ostracion which the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies within the family Ostraciidae in the suborder Ostracioidea within the order Tetraodontiformes.Etymology
The shortnose boxfish is classified in the genus Ostracion, this name means "little box" and is an allusion to the shape of the body of its type species, O. cubicum. The specific name, nasus means "nose" and is a reference to the short snout.Description
The shortnose boxfish has 9 soft rays supporting both the dorsal and anal fins while the caudal fin has 10 rays, 8 of which are branched. Males have a short blunt, conical protuberance above the mouth and in front of the eyes. The snout has a concave profile. The juveniles and smaller females are pale grey to silvery white on the carapace with scattered, small black spots on the caudal peduncle and base of the caudal finpeduncle and caudal-fin base, with scattered black spots. The males have a white carapce and caudal peduncle which is patterned with irregularly shaped pale yellowish-green blotches. The upper body has a dense covering of black spotsmwhich form a dark reticulated pattern. This species has a maximum published total length of.