Boleophthalmus is a genus of mudskippers in the goby family, native to intertidal mudflats and estuaries across the Indo-Pacific - the atlas's 4 species are recorded from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, Myanmar, and Pakistan. Like other mudskippers they are amphibious, spending much of the tidal cycle out of water on exposed mud and breathing partly through their moist skin and a modified gill chamber that holds an air-water mix. Protruding, independently mobile eyes sit high on the head, and atlas species reach a substantial 6.5–8.5 in, larger than many of the small mudskippers more commonly kept in the hobby.
Boleophthalmus is more herbivorous than most mudskipper genera, grazing diatoms and algal film off the mud surface with a distinctive side-to-side combing motion of the jaws rather than hunting invertebrates. Males perform visible fin-flaring and jumping displays over their mud territories during the breeding season, and pairs guard eggs in a burrow plugged against the tide. Species such as Boddart's goggle-eyed goby (B. boddarti), the Indian mudskipper (B. dussumieri), and the great blue-spotted mudskipper (B. pectinirostris) are known to specialist paludarium keepers, who need to replicate the land-and-water, brackish tidal setup these fish require; conservation status is mixed, with two species Least Concern and two Not Evaluated.