White-spotted puffer

White-spotted puffer ( Arothron hispidus )

The White-spotted puffer ( Arothron hispidus ) lives in the Red Sea and Indo-Pacific from East Africa to the coast of Baja California and Panama, north to Japan and Hawaii, south to South Africa's Cape Province, Rapa Iti and Lord Howe Island. It prefers sandy soils in lagoons and outer reefs, at depths ranging from one to 50 meters. Juveniles often stay on in weedy estuaries.

White-spotted puffer fish are gray to greenish brown, the back, flanks and tail are patterned with white dots and covered with small spines. The population of the Red Sea has smaller but more points. White-spotted puffer fish are up to half a meter long.

Fins formula: Dorsal 10-11, 10-11 anal

White-spotted puffer fish live close to the ground, are solitary and territorial and feed on coralline algae, detritus, molluscs and tunicates, sponges, corals, anemones, tube worms, and echinoderms ( large crown of thorns starfish ).