---
title: Whitespotted Puffer (Arothron hispidus)
scientific_name: Arothron hispidus
common_name: Whitespotted Puffer
taxon: Puffers
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-26T17:03:43.942Z
updated: 2026-08-13T12:43:39.949Z
tags: Whitespotted Puffer, Arothron hispidus, Puffers, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/puffers/whitespotted-puffer
---

# Whitespotted Puffer (*Arothron hispidus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Puffers (*Tetraodontidae*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Weight:** 2 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-50 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sheltered reef flats, lagoons and seagrass, often in turbid water
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Poisonous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- brown-gray body covered in white spots, belly striped white and gray
- yellow-white rings around the pectoral fin base and the eye
- loose baggy skin, no scales and no pelvic fins
- length up to 50 cm

A baggy brown fish spotted white all over, with concentric rings around the base of the pectoral fin and a belly striped in gray. Up to 50 cm (20 in), hovering over sheltered sand and seagrass, unhurried and unbothered.

The skin has no scales, which is what allows the inflation: threatened, the fish pumps water into a stretchy stomach chamber until it is a rigid ball, and the loose spotted hide expands smoothly with it. Doing this in air, as when someone lifts one out of the water for a photograph, can leave the fish unable to expel the gas.

The flesh, skin, liver and gonads carry tetrodotoxin, and this species has caused fatal poisonings where people ate it. The toxin is not made by the fish: it comes from bacteria acquired through the diet, which is why farmed puffers raised on clean feed end up non-toxic.

The four fused teeth form a beak that grows continuously and is used on hard food - coral, molluscs, urchins, sponge - so a puffer on a reef flat leaves visible scrape marks where it has been working.

## Also known as

- **English:** bristly puffer, stripebelly puffer, white-spotted puffer
- **Arabic:** Hadroom
- **Hebrew:** נפוחית הטבעות, נפוחית לבנת-כתמים
- **French:** Poisson ballon à épaule noire, Ballon à épaule noire, Compère à Taches Blanches
- **Italian:** pesce palla a punti bianchi
- **German:** Weißflecken-Kugelfisch
- **Spanish:** botete panza rayada, Tamboril Verde De Puntos Blancos, Botete Pintado
- **Portuguese:** Baiacu-de-pintas-brancas
- **Dutch:** Witgevlekte Kogelvis
- **Polish:** arotron szorstki
- **Czech:** čtverzubec běloskvrnný
- **Japanese:** サザナミフグ, Sazanamifugu
- **Chinese:** 烏規, 白點河魨, 紋腹叉鼻魨
- **Ukrainian:** Аротрон колючий
- **Russian:** Колючий аротрон
- **AF:** Witspikkel-blaasop
- **BIS:** Nilfis
- **CA:** Peix bola de taques blanques
- **DA:** Hvidplettet kuglefisk
- **DIV:** ލައްޖެހި ކޮލި
- **FI:** Harmaapallokala
- **FIJ:** kalavo ni vutia
- **KO:** 흰점꺼끌복
- **TAH:** huehue
- **TGL:** Butete
- **TH:** ปลาปักเป้าจุดขาว, ปลาปักเป้ายักษ์แต้มขาว
- **VI:** Cá nóc chuột vân bụng

## Scientific synonyms

- *Arothon hispidus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Arothron hispidus perspicillaris* (Rüppell, 1829)
- *Crayracion hispidus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Dilobomycter hispidus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Dilobomycterus hispidus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Takifugu hispidus* (Linnaeus, 1758)
- *Tetraodon hispidus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Tetraodon perspicillaris* Rüppell, 1829
- *Tetraodon sazanami* Tanaka, 1916
- *Tetraodon semistriatus* Rüppell, 1837
- *Tetrodon hispidus* Linnaeus, 1758
- *Tetrodon laterna* Richardson, 1845
- *Tetrodon pusillus* Klunzinger, 1871

## Range

Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/puffers/whitespotted-puffer)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*