The waters behind the fish

Africa · the Nile and the Sahel rivers

The Nile and the broad belt of Sudanian rivers across northern Africa — the Niger, Senegal, Gambia, Volta and Lake Chad basins. The water of the Fahaka (Tetraodon lineatus), the banded Nile puffer that ranges right across this Nilo-Sudanian province, a large, powerful freshwater puffer of warm, often hard and alkaline rivers.

• Tetraodon lineatus
• Tetraodon pustulatus

Central Africa · the Congo River & Lake Tanganyika

The vast Congo River and its rapids, pools and tributaries — one of the great freshwater systems on Earth. Home to the most distinctly aquarium African puffers: the giant Mbu (Tetraodon mbu), among the largest of all freshwater puffers; the leopard-spotted Congo puffer (T. schoutedeni); and the ambush-hunting potato puffer (T. miurus) that buries itself in sand. Warm, soft-to-neutral blackwater and whitewater reaches.

• Tetraodon duboisi
• Tetraodon mbu
• Tetraodon miurus
• Tetraodon schoutedeni

South Asia · the Western Ghats, Gangetic plain & Sri Lanka

The monsoon rivers, backwaters and floodplains of the Indian subcontinent — the Western Ghats, the Gangetic plain and the wet-zone streams of Sri Lanka. The home of the pea puffer (Carinotetraodon travancoricus) and the dwarf imitator puffer of Kerala's rivers, the ocellated Leiodon cutcutia of the plains, and the brackish-tolerant topaz puffer (Dichotomyctere fluviatilis) of the lower rivers and estuaries.

• Carinotetraodon imitator
• Carinotetraodon travancoricus
• Dichotomyctere fluviatilis
• Dichotomyctere nigroviridis
• Leiodon cutcutia

Mainland Indochina · Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam

The great Mekong and the Chao Phraya — the floodplains, rapids and oxbows of mainland Southeast Asia. The epicentre of the river puffers (Pao): the dragon or humpback puffer, the bristly hairy puffer, the buried-eyed arrowhead puffer of the Mekong sandbanks, and their many relatives — freshwater ambush predators of warm, flowing rivers.

• Auriglobus modestus
• Carinotetraodon lorteti
• Dichotomyctere ocellatus
• Pao abei
• Pao baileyi
• Pao cochinchinensis
• Pao fangi
• Pao leiurus
• Pao palembangensis
• Pao suvattii
• Pao turgidus

Sundaland · the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo & tidal coasts

The blackwater rivers, peat swamps and — above all — the brackish mangrove estuaries and tidal lower rivers of the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. The water of the brackish puffers: the green spotted puffer (Dichotomyctere nigroviridis), the figure-eight (D. ocellatus) and the golden Auriglobus, alongside the dragon puffer and the red-eye dwarf puffers (Carinotetraodon irrubesco, C. salivator) of Sundaic rivers.

• Auriglobus nefastus
• Auriglobus silus
• Carinotetraodon borneensis
• Carinotetraodon irrubesco
• Carinotetraodon salivator
• Pao wesleywongi
• Sphoeroides psittacus

South America · the Amazon, Tocantins & Atlantic coast

The Amazon and Tocantins and the great estuary where they meet the Atlantic. The only New World puffers live here: the lively, shoaling Amazon puffer (Colomesus asellus), the single true-freshwater puffer of the Americas, which follows the flooded forest; the larger banded puffer (C. psittacus) of the brackish coast; and the Tocantins puffer of that dammed river.

• Colomesus tocantinensis
• Sphoeroides asellus