Bluespotted boxfish
Amazing fact
The box-shaped body of the bluespotted boxfish is covered with bony plates formed from scales.
いおワールドかごしま水族館
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The box-shaped body of the bluespotted boxfish is covered with bony plates formed from scales.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Bluespotted boxfish
- Scientific name
- Ostracion immaculatus
- Japanese name
- ハコフグ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Tetraodontiformes
- Family
- Ostraciidae
- Genus
- Ostracion
It lives in coastal waters from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan, and around the Korean Peninsula.
Young ones look like yellow boxfish, but you can tell them apart because their black spots are smaller than their eyes.
How the Bluespotted boxfish lives
It lives among shallow-water corals and on rocky reefs. When disturbed, it releases mucus containing poison from its body surface. As males grow, their backs turn blue.
宇久井ビジターセンター新潟市水族館 マリンピア日本海いおワールドかごしま水族館Basic data
- Range
- Pacific coast from Nemuro to southern Kyushu, Sea of Japan and East China Sea coasts from Aomori to southern Kyushu, and elsewhere
Where the Bluespotted boxfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ハコフグ
- 简体中文
- 无斑箱鲀
- 繁體中文
- 無斑箱魨
- 한국어
- 거북복
- Español
- Cofre de Manchas azules
- Deutsch
- Japanischer Kofferfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-cofre-de-pintas-azuis
- Italiano
- Pesce scatola a macchie blu
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ハコフグChecked: 2026-11-03
- いおワールドかごしま水族館 — ハコフグChecked: 2026-11-07
- 宇久井ビジターセンター — ハコフグChecked: 2026-11-07
- 新潟市水族館 マリンピア日本海 — ハコフグChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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