🐠 Reticulated Pufferfish (Arothron reticularis)
A Mossy-Brown, Net-Patterned Puffer • Intelligent and Personable • A Big, Characterful Centrepiece
 
📋 The Reticulated Pufferfish, also known as the Reticulated Blowfish or Reticulated Toadfish, has a decorative dark, mossy-brown body showing off an intricate net-like reticulated pattern. It's easy to confuse with the similarly patterned Stars & Stripes Puffer, but the two are distinguished by where the stripes and spots divide: front-to-back on this species (stripes at the front, spots at the back), versus top-to-bottom on the Stars & Stripes. It's native to a wide range across the Indo-West Pacific, where it inhabits mangrove swamps, seagrass beds, and reef flats.
Like other members of the Arothron genus, it's known for its intelligence and personality, quickly learning to recognise its keeper. It's also a determined predator, and it isn't reef safe: it will eat smaller fish, ornamental shrimp, crabs, snails, urchins, and clams, may nip the fins of slow-moving tankmates, and may also graze on coralline algae and stony corals.
It grows to about 45cm, and we recommend a minimum aquarium of 150 gallons or larger, so plan for a big 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. A severely stressed puffer can release toxin into the water, so use a rigid container and not a net for transfers.
 
💡 Highlights
🕸️ Mossy-Brown Body With a Net-Like Pattern: A decorative, distinctive pufferfish
🔍 Easy to Tell From the Stars & Stripes: Stripes at the front, spots at the back
😊 Personable: Known for recognising its keeper
📏 Grows to About 45cm: Plan the tank size from the start
🌿 Not Reef Safe: Will eat small fish and invertebrates, and may graze on stony corals