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The striking blue juvenile pelagic porcupinefish above was recently acquired by Absolutely Fish in a shipment from Bali. The pelagic porcupine fish is not a an aquarium fish you hear about everyday, precisely because they are more ocean going than reef associated fish. This unique looking blue pelagic porcupine puffer is not a morph or a variant of the three foot long porcupine puffer, Diodon hystrix, but an different species entirely, Diodon eydouxii.

Adult appearance of the pelagic porcupine puffer

The pelagic porcupinefish may be a more active swimmer but at least it only grows to about one foot long (27cm)  making adults much more manageable than the ubiquitous porcupine puffer. In either case the inch and half blue porcupine puffer has a lot of room to grow and although it may lost most of its blue coloration as an adult, it still develops a unique streamlined shape and interesting markings that seem more puffer than porcupine.

[Absolutely Fish via Advanced Aquarist]