Arothron hispidus 

The white-spotted puffer fish (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.

It also has concentric contrasting white and dark grey lines that radiate around the eyes and pectoral fins.

Body with small spines except around snout and caudal peduncle. Each nostril with two fleshy solid tentacles. Restricted gill opening.

The white spotted puffer fish is poisonous.

Feed on fleshy, calcareous, or coralline algae, detritus, mollusks, tunicates, sponges, corals, zoanthid anemones, crabs, tube worms and echinoderms.

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.

It has poisonous skin and internal organs . It contains a potentially lethal toxin called tetrodotoxin (TTX). TTX poisoning is a major threat to public health because there are no specific antidotes.

Oviparous