Roundbelly cowfish
Amazing fact
The roundbelly cowfish sometimes squirts water from its mouth to make a hole in the sand.
Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The roundbelly cowfish sometimes squirts water from its mouth to make a hole in the sand.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Roundbelly cowfish
- Scientific name
- Lactoria diaphana
- Japanese name
- ウミスズメ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Tetraodontiformes
- Family
- Ostraciidae
- Genus
- Lactoria
A boxfish relative that lives in shallow coastal seas around Japan and across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
It has horns above its eyes, in the middle of its back and toward the rear of its sides.
How the Roundbelly cowfish lives
When young, its belly is translucent and rounded. As it matures, its belly becomes flatter. It eats crustaceans hidden in the sand.
Okinawa Churaumi AquariumBasic data
- Range
- Hakodate, Ogasawara Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Zhejiang in China, Indo-Pacific, and elsewhere
Where the Roundbelly cowfish 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
- ウミスズメ
- 简体中文
- 棘背角箱鲀
- 繁體中文
- 棘背角箱魨
- 한국어
- 소뿔복
- Español
- Cofre espinoso
- Deutsch
- Dornen-Kofferfisch
- Português (Brasil)
- Peixe-vaca-transparente
- Italiano
- Pesce scatola cornuto diafano
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá nóc sừng bụng tròn
- Русский
- Многошипный рогатый кузовок
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 — ウミスズメChecked: 2026-11-04
- Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium — Roundbelly cowfishChecked: 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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