Black-spotted Pufferfish

About

The black-spotted pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus) is a chunky, personable fish found across a wide sweep of the Indo-Pacific, from the coasts of East Africa out to Micronesia and Samoa, ranging north to southern Japan and south to New South Wales. It inhabits reef crests and outer slopes where invertebrate life is dense, and in the wild it makes short work of coral tips, crustaceans, mollusks, sponges, and tunicates using its fused, beak-like teeth. Adults are sometimes spotted alone but frequently turn up in pairs. The body is rounded and pale with scattered dark spots, and like other puffers it carries the ability to inflate when threatened. Though in a home aquarium, provoking that response is something you want to avoid. The personality is a real draw: these fish are curious, interactive, and tend to develop a recognizable relationship with their keeper. The trade-off is that they are fundamentally incompatible with a reef setup. Anything invertebrate is fair game as food. This is a fish for a roomy FOWLR system with robust tankmates that can hold their own. Intermediate experience is a reasonable baseline, mostly because meeting its space requirements and managing its diet demand some planning.