Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus
Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus, Juvenile. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2019. Lengths: ca. 2.5 cm 1.0 inch). Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2019. Photograph courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus. Fish caught from shore at Cerritos Beach, Km 66, Baja California Sur, August 2004. Length: 30 cm (12 inches).
Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus. Fish caught from coastal waters off Puerto Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Baja California Sur, May 2018. Length: 32 cm (13 inches).
Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus, World Record. Fish caught off the beach at Buena Vista, Baja California Sur, July 2019. Weight: 0.91 kg (2 lbs 0 oz). Catch and photograph courtesy of Mark Spellman, Lafayette, California.
The Bullseye Puffer, Sphoeroides annulatus, is a member of the Puffer or Tetraodontidae Family, and is known in Mexico as botete diana or simply botete. Globally, there are twenty-three species in the genus Sphoeroides, of which eleven are found in Mexican waters, six in the Atlantic and five in the Pacific Ocean.
The Bullseye Puffer has a moderately elongated body with a depth that is 25% to 33% of standard length. Their back is olive-brown and their unusually flat ventral side is white. Their head and back have narrow yellowish lines, bars, and oblique bands and 3 narrow bands just behind the eyes. There is a double concentric oval on their back after which they are named. Their head, sides, and upper back are covered with numerous small dark spots. The iris of their eyes is yellow and their fins are spotless. Their head is large, projecting, and blunt and the gap between their elevated eyes is wide and convex. They have strong powerful teeth. Their anal and dorsal fins are small and similarly shaped with 6 to 9 rays, have short bases, and are found well back on their body with the anal fin being slightly behind the dorsal fin. Their caudal fin is bluntly convex and they do not have pelvic fins. Their head and body are covered with small spines and their skin is scaleless.
The Bullseye Puffer resides over sandy bottoms and occasionally around rocky reefs and adjacent sand patches at depths up to 105 m (345 feet). They reach a maximum of 48 cm (19 inches) in length. As of January 1, 2023, the International Game Fish Association world record stood at 1.13 kg (2 lbs 8 oz) with the fish caught off the beach at Puerto Peñasco, Sonora, April 2021. They are exceedingly well camouflaged but may not have the ability to blow themselves up like other Puffers to deter predator attacks. The Bullseye Puffer is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Bullseye Puffer is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The Bullseye Puffer is easy to identify due to the markings on their backs and cannot be confused with any other species. Post death, however, these markings quickly fade making the identification a bit more difficult.
From a conservation perspective the Bullseye Puffer is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are a targeted species by subsistence fishermen off the beaches of Baja California Sur via hook and line and in certain locations can be caught in abundance. They are often encountered mid-water by divers. Note: Like many Puffers, the Bullseye Puffer should be considered to be highly poisonous, even fatal, if eaten, due to the potential presence of the potent neurotoxins saxitoxin and/or tetrodotoxin, which is most likely found in their skin, viscera, and gonads and is believed to protect them from predation by larger fish.