Ostracion meleagris
Black boxfish | Bluespotted Boxfish | Ornate Boxfish | Pahu | Spotted Boxfish | Spotted Trunkfish | Whitespotted Boxfish | Ostracion melagris
Ostracion meleagris, male, Bali, Indonesia, Photo: Ian Shaw
Ostracion meleagris, juvenile, Photo: Rick Stuart-Smith
Ostracion meleagris, female, Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Photo: Graham Edgar
Ostracion meleagris, NSW, Australia, Photo: Ian Shaw
Distribution
Tropical Eastern Pacific, Tropical Indo-Pacific
Description
Juveniles dark with small light spots. Adults with blue sides and face, but black back with white spots, rather than blue back with black spots as on O. cubicus (yellow boxfish).
Information
Max Size: 25 cm
Sea Temperature Range: 22.3-30.8°C
Depth: 1-30m
Habitat Generalization Index: 21.22
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Frequent (12.2% of sites)
Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
Abundance: Solitary (1 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Ian Shaw