Origin
Native to South and Southeast Asia, especially in estuarine and coastal regions of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia. Found in mangrove swamps and slow-moving tidal rivers.

Visual & Behavioral Appeal
Sporting an electric green topcoat with irregular black spots and a white to yellowish belly, this pufferfish is stunning and bold. It has independently moving eyes and curious, investigative swimming behavior. Known for its intelligence—it can recognize its keeper and interact actively at feeding time.

Purpose
Primarily kept as a display or solo specimen. Due to its aggression, it’s not a community fish. It controls snail populations and displays fascinating behavior, making it a lively centerpiece in species-only aquaria.

Importance
An excellent species for aquarists seeking a challenge or studying brackish-to-marine transitions. Its care demands promote advanced understanding of aquatic chemistry and habitat replication.

Included Resources
Requires a spacious tank, brackish-to-marine water stability, hard decor for algae grazing, and enriched feeding routines. A lid is essential—they may jump. Filtration must handle high bio-load.

Best Use Cases
Ideal for large brackish setups with robust filtration, educational biotope displays, and solo or puffer-only species tanks. Not suited for planted community tanks or peaceful freshwater environments.

Conservation Context
Vulnerable in parts of its range due to habitat destruction in mangroves and pollution. Keeping this species successfully encourages awareness of estuarine conservation and mangrove importance.

Ideal Tankmates
• Best kept alone or with other large puffers (in very large systems)
• Avoid shrimp, snails, and peaceful fish—will attack or consume them
• Possible tankmates: Monos, Scats, larger archerfish (in marine phase)

Region (A)
• Latitude: 8.5241° N
• Longitude: 76.9366° E
(Kerala backwaters, India)

Region (B)
• Latitude: 1.3521° N
• Longitude: 103.8198° E
(Singapore estuarine and mangrove zones)