A blowfish (puffer), which puffs up and becomes spiky when alarmed. Depicted as an orange or brown blowfish in full profile facing left, with small fins, a white underside, and a round, spiky body, as if inflated.
Called fugu in Japan, where it’s consumed as a delicacy.
May be to represent a variety of fish (saltwater or freshwater), fishing, metaphorical senses of fish, and fish as food, as consumed in the form of ? Sushi. Not to be confused with ? Fish or ? Tropical Fish, though their applications may overlap. See also ? Fishing Pole.
Google’s blowfish was previously blue, Microsoft’s yellow, and Facebook’s white.
Blowfish was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.
U+1F421
? Blowfish