📸 PhotoPhoto: portioid · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Yellow boxfish
Ostracion cubicum (Yellow boxfish · Yellow boxfish)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 FishBase notes that it is traded as an aquarium fish.
- 💡 Its maximum body length of 45 cm is about 1.5 times the long side of an A4 sheet of paper (29.7 cm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The yellow boxfish is a box-shaped boxfish living on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, bright yellow with black spots when young.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Juveniles have black spots over a bright yellow background, and as they grow the yellow dulls and the spots become fewer. Large adults are bluish with yellow seams between the plates covering the body.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It feeds mainly on algae, supplemented with microorganisms, invertebrates, mollusks, and sponges. It lives alone or forms groups of one male with 2–4 females.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2024) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/193777
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 6TD5R
- • iucnredlist.org — 193777
- • 국가생물종목록(국립생물자원관) ktsn 120000059377 — https://species.nibr.go.kr/home/mainHome.do?cont_link=009&subMenu=009002&contCd=009002&ktsn=120000059377
- • wikidata.org — Q116179159
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Ostracion cubicum 339539607.jpg
- • fishbase.se — Ostracion-cubicum.html
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Lactophrys)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.