Fine dark lines running the length of a pale body; common on sand and seagrass.
To about 31 cm, pale grey-brown to yellowish with narrow dark lines running horizontally along the whole body and a dark ring around the base of the pectoral fin. The similar Arothron hispidus is spotted rather than lined and has concentric rings around the pectoral base; A. immaculatus is plain.
It occupies sand, rubble and seagrass in sheltered inshore water and is one of the puffers a muck diver sees on most dives, often resting on the bottom. It feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, algae and seagrass. Like all puffers it carries tetrodotoxin and should not be provoked into inflating. Recorded from about 1 to 30 m.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.