Spotted puffer

About this species

Canthigaster janthinoptera, known as the honeycomb toby, is a species of pufferfish in the family Tetraodontidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific, where it can be found along the east coast of Africa south to South Africa's Eastern Cape province, east to Oeno Island and the Line and Marquesas Islands, north to Japan, and south to Lord Howe Island. It is replaced by its relative C. jactator near the Hawaiian Islands and by C. punctatissima in the Eastern Pacific. It occurs in reef environments, often near sponges, at a depth range of 1 to 30 m, and it reaches 9 cm in total length. The species is reported to feed on sponges, polychaetes, and algae, in addition to small quantities of tunicates, crustaceans, echinoderms and corals. It is an oviparous species usually encountered alone or in pairs.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Canthigaster janthinoptera”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 40 records
February: 67 records
March: 41 records
April: 73 records
May: 121 records
June: 62 records
July: 58 records
August: 39 records
September: 66 records
October: 66 records
November: 74 records
December: 48 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–21 m · Deepest record: 927.5 m

0–10 m: 198 records
10–20 m: 104 records
20–30 m: 34 records
30–40 m: 5 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 1 records
60–70 m: 1 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 19–30 °C

18–20 °C: 1 records
20–22 °C: 4 records
22–24 °C: 23 records
24–26 °C: 63 records
26–28 °C: 142 records
28–30 °C: 190 records

Photos

(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Emanuele Santarelli, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Pauline Walsh Jacobson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Spotted puffer, Honeycomb Toby, spotted puffer, Spotted Pufferfish, Spotted Toby, White-spotted Pufferfish

Names in 2 more languages

French: Canthigaster alvéolé
Japanese: Shiborikinchakufugu, シボリキンチャクフグ

Other scientific names: Canthigaster janhinopterus, Canthigaster janthinopera, Canthigaster janthinopterus, Tropidichthys janthinopterus

Similar species

Spider-eye puffer
Canthigaster amboinensis
Bennett's sharpnose puffer
Canthigaster bennetti
Compressed Toby
Canthigaster compressa
False-eyed Pufferfish
Canthigaster papua
Spotted sharpnose
Canthigaster solandri
Valentinni's sharpnose puffer
Canthigaster valentini

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).
929 open-data records from 1855 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.