Guineafowl puffer
Arothron meleagris
- Usual depth3–16 m
- Water temperature22–29 °C
- Best monthsFebruary, March, and April
- How commonCommon
Photo credit: (c) Alberto Alcalá, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
About this species
Arothron meleagris, commonly known as the guineafowl puffer or golden puffer, is a pufferfish from the Indo-Pacific, and Eastern Pacific. It is occasionally caught for the aquarium trade. It reaches 50 centimetres (20 in) in length.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Arothron meleagris”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article
Where and when
Where it has been recorded
Worldwide
Loading the map
Best months
Worldwide (open data)
- January: 536 records
- February: 612 records
- March: 715 records
- April: 553 records
- May: 460 records
- June: 382 records
- July: 543 records
- August: 472 records
- September: 360 records
- October: 516 records
- November: 536 records
- December: 439 records
Depth and water temperature
Depth
Mostly recorded at 3–16 m · Deepest record: 29.5 m
Water temperature
Recorded in surface water of 22–29 °C
Photos
(c) Bill Levine, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist 
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist 
(c) Vsevolod Rudyi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Alberto Alcalá, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist 
(c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
Names and classification
- English
- Guineafowl puffer, Guineafowl Blaasop, Guineafowl Puffer, Guinea-fowl Pufferfish, Spotted Puffer, Spotted Puffer, Guineafowl puffer, Velcro-fish, White-spotted Balloon, White-spotted puffer, White-spotted Pufferfish, Whitespotted Pufferfish
Names in 6 more languages
- German
- Perlhuhn-Kugelfisch, Schwarzflecken-Kugelfisch, Sternen-Kugelfisch
- Spanish
- botete aletas punteadas, Botete Globo, botete negro, Pez Globo, Tamboril negro
- Filipino
- Butete
- French
- Compère pintade, Poisson-ballon pintade, Tétrodon moucheté
- Japanese
- Mizorefugu, ミゾレフグ
- Simplified Chinese
- 海豬仔, 白点叉鼻鲀, 白點叉鼻魨, 白點規仔, 規仔
Other scientific names: Arothron meleagridis, Arothron ophryas, Arothron setosus, Ovoides latifrons, Tetraodon lacrymatus, Tetraodon meleagris, Tetraodon setosus, Tetrodon meleagris, Tetrodon setosus
Similar species
Bristly pufferArothron hispidus
Masked pufferArothron diadematus
Narrow-lined toadfishArothron immaculatus
Narrow-lined PufferArothron manilensis
Map pufferArothron mappa
Blackspotted pufferArothron nigropunctatus
Sources and credits
Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).
- Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
- Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
- Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
- 2,844 open-data records from 1798 to 2024.
- Species data updated October 26, 2026.
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