Tetraodontidae Bonaparte 1831

Family Tetraodontidae Bonaparte 1831 View in CoL View at ENA ( Fig. 5F View FIGURE 5 ). Pufferfishes; Tamboriles, Botetes, Peces Globo, Cuches, Cuchisapos, Tamboretas, Tambuleros, Tamborines

Description: Body heavy, thick, inflatable; up to 100 cm in length, but usually less than 30 cm; head large, blunt; eyes high on sides of head; jaws as a beak composed of 4 fused heavy powerful teeth with a central suture on each jaw; a slit-like gill opening in front of the pectoral fin base; dorsal and anal fins usually each with 7–18 soft rays; caudal fin with 10 principal rays and no procurrent rays, moderately forked to rounded ( Robertson & Allen 2015, Nelson et al. 2016). Distribution: Marine, with several taxa entering and occurring in brackish and freshwaters; tropical and subtropical portions of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans ( Nelson et al. 2016). One genus and two species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.