Narrow-lined puffer

Manila puffer ( Arothron manilensis )

The Manila puffer ( Arothron manilensis ), also called stripes puffer, lives in the tropical western Pacific from the Ryukyu Islands, about the Philippines, Borneo, along the coast of Australia to New South Wales, Samoa and Tonga. He survives mainly in turbid water over sand and mud bottoms, and seagrass beds to depths of 20 meters and goes well in the brackish water of river mouths. For reproduction, it pulls in mangrove forests, where the young fish stay preferred. The Manila puffer fish is closely related to the unspotted puffer ( Arothron immaculatus ) which inhabits the same habitat in the Indian Ocean.

Manila puffers are light gray with four to ten narrow brown vertical stripes on the flanks and on the back. The fish are 31 inches long. The skin is without scales and covered with small spines.

Fins formula: Dorsal 9-11, 9-10 Anal

They live close to the ground, are solitary, territorial and feed on snails, mussels and crustaceans.