White-spotted puffer fish - Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) - Cyprus

 See also

Lagocephalus sceleratus (Gmelin, 1789) - Λαγοκέφαλος - Cyprus

All about Cyprus - Όλα για την Κύπρο

First confirmed record of the white-spotted puffer Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758)

in the Mediterranean Sea' by Costas Constantinou

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. The white spotted puffer fish is poisonous.

Its distribution extends through the Indo-Pacific area, Red Sea included, to the eastern Pacific Ocean. A confirmed record was reported recently from the eastern Mediterranean Sea off Cyprus. 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. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-spotted_puffer

Cavo Greco, 02.02.2018 - Underwater photos  by Costas Constantinou