diff --git a/cmd/tesseract/posix/README.md b/cmd/tesseract/posix/README.md
index 4629e7d3..f2efaa4c 100644
--- a/cmd/tesseract/posix/README.md
+++ b/cmd/tesseract/posix/README.md
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ To ensure service stability, we strongly recommend setting the `GOMEMLIMIT` envi
 > - **Recommended setting**: 80-90% of the container's total memory limit (e.g., `GOMEMLIMIT=1.8GiB` for a 2GiB container).
 
 
+## antispam_mem_table_size & antispam_base_table_size
+
+These parameters set the upper bound on antispam table size. Increasing them results in larger individual .sst files and fewer total .sst files. They should be tuned in conjunction with the compactor count and available CPU resources. On systems with excess CPU capacity, a configuration with smaller tables and more compactors is often preferable.
+
+> [!IMPORTANT]
+> - **These parameters must not be reduced after initial configuration (defaults are antispam_mem_table_size=256<<18 and antispam_base_table_size=16<<18). Lowering them will cause the POSIX process to fail during BadgerDB initialization and remain stuck, typically with an error similar to: “Arena too small, toWrite:40 newTotal:174483044 limit:174483027”.
+
+
 ## Witnessing
 
 > [!WARNING]
diff --git a/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go b/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
index 5135416f..7439a791 100644
--- a/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
+++ b/cmd/tesseract/posix/main.go
@@ -105,8 +105,8 @@ var (
 	antispamIndexCacheSize      = flag.String("antispam_index_cache_size", "768MB", "Amount of RAM to allocate for antispam index cache, set to zero for unlimited.")
 	antispamCompactionInterval  = flag.Duration("antispam_compaction_interval", tposix_as.DefaultCompactionInterval, "Interval between GC/compaction runs on the antispam index.")
 	antispamNumCompactors       = flag.Int("antispam_num_compactors", 2, "Number of BadgerDB compactors to run.")
-	antispamMemTableSize        = flag.Int64("antispam_mem_table_size", 256<<20, "Size of BadgerDB memtables.")
-	antispamBaseTableSize       = flag.Int64("antispam_base_table_size", 16<<20, "Size of BadgerDB base tables.")
+	antispamMemTableSize        = flag.Int64("antispam_mem_table_size", 256<<18, "Size of BadgerDB memtables.")
+	antispamBaseTableSize       = flag.Int64("antispam_base_table_size", 16<<18, "Size of BadgerDB base tables.")
 	awaiterPollInterval         = flag.Duration("awaiter_poll_interval", storage.DefaultAwaiterPollInterval, "Interval between two checkpoint polls by the awaiter. Used for antispam, and if enable_publication_awaiter is set, to block add-* requests responses. Must be strictly positive or defaults to DefaultAwaiterPollInterval.")
 
 	// Infrastructure setup flags
@@ -249,10 +249,10 @@ func newStorage(ctx context.Context, signer note.Signer) (st *storage.CTStorage,
 		CompactionInterval: *antispamCompactionInterval,
 		BadgerOptions: func(o badger.Options) badger.Options {
 			return o.
-				WithCompression(options.None).				// Off as this appears to cause memory issues when compacting large indices.
-				WithMemTableSize(*antispamMemTableSize).	// Default tunes memtables for high write throughput
-				WithBaseTableSize(*antispamBaseTableSize).	// Default tunes to reduce file count
-				WithNumCompactors(*antispamNumCompactors).	// Default tunes to be able keep up with high throughput of LSM merges
+				WithCompression(options.None).             // Off as this appears to cause memory issues when compacting large indices.
+				WithMemTableSize(*antispamMemTableSize).   // Default tunes memtables for high write throughput
+				WithBaseTableSize(*antispamBaseTableSize). // Default tunes to reduce file count
+				WithNumCompactors(*antispamNumCompactors). // Default tunes to be able keep up with high throughput of LSM merges
 				WithIndexCacheSize(int64(antispamIndexCacheBytes)).
 				WithBlockCacheSize(int64(antispamBlockCacheBytes))
 		},