White-spotted puffer

White-spotted puffer
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Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Tetraodontiformes
Family:	Tetraodontidae
Genus:	Arothron
Species:	A. hispidus
Binomial name
Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The white-spotted puffer (Arothron hispidus) is a medium to large-sized puffer fish, it can reach 50 cm length. It is light grey in color, or greyish or yellowish, and clearly covered with more or less regular white points, that become concentric contrasting white and dark grey lines that radiate around the eyes and pectoral fins. The ventral part is white. The "shoulder" (around the pectoral fins) is dark, what is another distinctive feature of this species. It also has concentric contrasting white and dark grey lines that radiate around the eyes and pectoral fins.

• Arothron hispidus 1.jpg
• Arothron hispidus Réunion.jpg
• Arothron hispidus Maldives.jpg
• Arothron hispidus at Alexandria Aquarium by Hatem Moushir 2.JPG

Its distribution extends through the Indo-Pacific area, Red Sea included, to the eastern Pacific Ocean. It can be found at depths of three to 35 metres. Its habitat types include reefs, lagoons, estuaries, and tidepools. Its diet includes calcareous or coralline algae, molluscs, tunicates, sponges, corals, zoanthids, crabs, polychaetes, starfish, urchins, krill, and silversides.

The adult is nocturnal and solitary. It is territorial, becoming somewhat aggressive.

References

• Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2006). "Arothron hispidus" in FishBase. November 2006 version.