Meet our July Fish of the Month, the Yellow Boxfish (Ostracion cubicus)!
Survey Regions: Yellow Boxfish are found in REEF's Indian Ocean and Red Sea (IORS) survey region, as well as throughout the Central Indo-Pacific (CIP) and South Pacific (SOP) survey regions. Want to know more? Check out the species distribution reports for the Yellow Boxfish in both the CIP and SOP regions in the REEF database.
Size: As juveniles (pictured) they are 1-4 inches long, but can grow up to 18 inches as adults.
Identifying Features: Juvenile Yellow Boxfish are bright yellow with black spots covering their head and body. As they get larger, the develop a bump on their snout tip. Adults are brownish purple with sparse, indistinct spots and a yellowish tail base.
Fun Facts: The Yellow Boxfish is protected by a bony, square-shaped carapace formed by a series of armor-like plates. This unique shape provided an interesting source of inspriration for the automotive industry. In 2005, Mercedes-Benz introduced the Bionic, a concept car modeled after the Yellow Boxfish.
Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for the August issue of e-News to see our next Fish of the Month.
Attribution: "Yellow boxfish (Ostracion cubicus)" by Rickard Zerpe is licensed under CC BY 2.0