orange boxfish

[samara]

Hi all,
I just caught what appears to be an orange boxfish. Looking at it could it be a boston bean? The image of the boston bean, in the fish datatbase, does not seem to match. Has anyone caught one of these things near LI? It is bright orange, about one inch in size and has horns protruding from the front and back. If anyone has caught one, do you have any idea what it eats or what is is? It matches the picture on google search for orange boxfish, but the locale is way wrong. Any ideas? Thanks. Steve

 

[Killerdrgn]

why is the locale wrong? I bet it says tropical waters like the gulf of mexico right? Every year fish from that region get wshed up here during the summer and they typically die in the winter when it gets too cold. So it probably could be an orange boxfish. Unless the google identification says they come from Australia or something.

 

[Domboski]

Hi Steve,

A picture would help tremendously. Here is a list of boxfish that newsday lists as potential finds on LI.

• Honeycomb boxfish (Lactophys polygonia)
• Scrawled cowfish (Lactophrys quadricornis)
• Trunkfish (Lactophrys trigonus)
• Smooth trunkfish (Lactophrys triqueter)

 

[Domboski]

I caught a small boxfish this summer but it is too small to ID accurately at this time. It looks like a Trunkfish. If you are not sure how to care for box fish start here and click into the different species: Boxfish.

Some boxfish are difficult to get eating. Mine eats mysis shrimp and cyclopeeze. Most boxfish also need some algae in their diet so vitamin supplementation is necessary unless you are lucky enough to get one eating nori.