Pufferfish

No group of saltwater fish turns customers into lifelong keepers quite like the puffers. These are the original "wet pets" of the marine hobby, intelligent and observant in a way few reef fish are, and many learn to recognize their keeper, follow movement outside the glass, and beg shamelessly at feeding time. The family runs a wide gamut, from the lovable big-bodied Arothron species like the Dogface, Stars and Stripes, and pattern-rich Mappa, to the spiny-bodied showpieces like the Porcupine and Spiny Box Puffer, down to the compact toby puffers such as the Blue Spotted and Saddle that pack all the personality of their larger cousins into a fraction of the footprint and bioload. Whatever the size, a pufferfish tends to become the fish everyone asks about.

A few things hold true across most of the group and are worth knowing before you buy. Nearly all puffers are best kept in fish-only or FOWLR systems, since they are not reliably reef safe and will hunt snails, crabs, shrimp, and clams and sometimes sample corals. They carry continuously growing beak-like teeth, so a diet of meaty foods rounded out with hard-shelled items like crab or clam on the half shell is essential to keep that beak worn down. They are messy, heavy eaters with a real bioload, which puts a premium on strong filtration and stable water, and they should always be handled gently to avoid forcing them to inflate in air, which is dangerous for the fish. Care level and adult size vary quite a bit from one puffer to the next, so browse the species below for the specifics before deciding which fits your system.