Without a doubt, one of the most interesting fish you'll ever see in a salt water aquarium, the puffer fish is also know as fugu, blowfish, and globefish. Many of the names are a result of the puffer's habit of inflating its body, in an attempt to intimidate any predators. It actually achieves nearly twice its body volume by swallowing water, which while effective, also cuts their ability to swim, to about half their normal speed.

The average puffer fish, such as the white-spotted variety, ranges up to two feet in length, and is tube-shaped, unless blown up for self-defense, at which time they become nearly round. Not surprisingly, the skin of puffer fish is very elastic, in order to allow them the nearly doubling of their bodies. Some species may have small spines on their bodies, which are actually modified scales. They are a carnivore, dining on coral, small crustaceans, and sea urchins in the natural environment.

In Japan, the eating of fugu is considered almost a ritual. But it's a very dangerous one, because the puffer fish carries a deadly poison called tetrodoxin in its skin, ovaries, liver and muscles. Only specially trained chefs cook this delicacy, but even then, it has caused many deaths, because there is no antidote.