🐠 Narrow Lined Pufferfish (Arothron manilensis)
An Elegant Wood-Grain-Striped Puffer • Hardy and Personable • Quick to Recognise Its Keeper
 
📋 The Narrow Lined Pufferfish, also known as the Manila Puffer or Striped Puffer, has an elegant, pillowy tan-to-grayish body marked with thin, concentric brown-to-orange stripes running its length, reminiscent of wood grain. It's native to a wide range across the Indo-Pacific, where it inhabits mangrove swamps, seagrass beds, and reef flats.
It's one of the hardier pufferfish available in the trade, and like other members of the Arothron "Fat Puffer" genus it shows real personality and intelligence, quickly learning to recognise its keeper and often appearing to beg at feeding time. It's shy at first, becoming noticeably more confident over time. It's a naturally messy eater with a significant bioload, so strong filtration and a protein skimmer matter. It isn't reef safe: it will eat small fish, ornamental shrimp, crabs, snails, urchins, sea stars, sponges, clams (including tridacnid clams), and tubeworms, and it may nip the fins of slow tankmates.
It reaches up to 30cm, so plan for a large tank from the outset. Like all pufferfish, it carries tetrodotoxin, which makes it toxic if eaten, so never eat a pufferfish, and wash your hands after tank maintenance. Use a rigid container and not a net for transfers, and never expose it to air.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Wood-Grain Stripes on a Milky Tan Body: An elegant, distinctive puffer
😊 Personable: Recognises its keeper and may beg for food
💪 Hardy: One of the more disease-resistant, adaptable pufferfish
📏 Grows to About 30cm: Plan the tank size from the start
🌿 Not Reef Safe: Will consume virtually any invertebrate, including tridacnid clams