Amanzimtoti Beach’s puffed up fish mystery resolved

A mysterious  creature, which was initially thought to be a rare kind of pufferfish, was discovered along the Amanzimtoti coastline last week, South Coast Sun reports.

After consulting with South African Association for Marine Biological Research’s (SAAMBR) Ann Kunz, she revealed what this spiky and somewhat puffed up fish exactly was.

Frank Berry made the interesting find while walking on Amanzimtoti Main Beach.

“It’s a spiny cowfish (lactoria diaphana) which is a genus of the box family,” explained Kunz.

“We identified it as a spiny cowfish mainly because of the three spines on its back, as against the longhorn cowfish, which has no spines on its back and a very different body shape. The other closely related cowfish has only one spine on its back. The spiny cowfish is relatively common along the KZN coast down to the Cape Aghulas. It’s a warm water species.”

Its puffed-up body gave many the idea that it was family to the pufferfish.

“It does look as though it is a pufferfish as we immediately identify the ‘inflated’ shape of the pufferfish. The spiny cowfish does not have an internal skeleton but bony scales covering its body. Its ‘inflated’ look is its permanent shape.”