General description
There are as many as 120 species of puffer fish that live mostly in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. All belongs to the order tetraodontiformes. The puffer fish live primarily at depths ranging from 18 to 100 meters. It is also a reef inhabitant, lives near the coral area.
Puffer fish also called blow fish, toad fish, swell fish, fugu, ikan buntal and baloon fish. They are named baloon fish after their habit of inflating themselves with water or air when threatened, making it difficult for predator to swallow them.
Puffer fish is an agressive fish. Puffer fish can attack any other fish they consider enemy. Puffer fish hunt by attack and bite the prey. If the prey is larger, the puffer fish kill the prey first and then eat the prey gradually till it end.
Puffer fish more a carnivore than omnivore animal where the diet was composed mainly cephalopods (squid and cuttlefish), crustaceans (particularly crabs), fish, shrimp, and other vertebrates.
Appearence
Puffer fish have long, tapered bodies with bulbous and colors to advertise their toxicity, while others have more muted or cryptic coloring to blend in with their environment. Puffer fish do not have scales. Their skin is thick and rough.
Puffer fish have four large teeth (two on the upper jaw and two in lower jaw). Fuse together forming a strong beak-like structure. Makes puffer fish mouth so strong it can crush shell of moluscas, snail, sea urchin, crab and other vertebrates as their main food source.
Puffer fish can quickly inflating (puff up) their body whenever they feel threathened by predator or have stimulation that disturb them.
Puffer fish can have spine. Some puffer fish species have spines on the skin, These spines usually lies flat on the side of the fish. When the fish puff up, the skin gets hard and the spine stick out in all directions. Tetrodotoxin (TTX) toxin can also be distributed into the skin.
These adaptations (puff up, spine and TTX toxin) are their way to prevent the predator from trying to eat them. Puffer fish predator include sea snake, shark (specially tiger shark), and human.
The puffer fish vary in size, usually small to medium in size 2 – 35 cm (1 – 14 inch) although some species might have 100 cm (39 inch) in lenght. Average lifespan of the puffer fish is around 10 years.
Because of the unique and distinctive characteristics, people sometimes keep the puffer fish in aquarium as ornament fish and considering the agressive behavior, they usually put in group together with their own species.
How the puffer fish puff up (inflate) ?
When there is a predator, puffer fish can inflate their body in a few seconds. The puffer fishs swallow a lot of water or air into its stomach (they have highly elastic stomach). Filled with water or air, its stomach becomes bigger. Other body parts inside the puffer fish are pushed to the side to make the room.
Watch the puffer fish puff up (inflate) in this video :
This puff up turn puffer fish into virtually inedible ball 2 – 3 times their normal size. Then only the bigger animals can eat it. The inflating can last up to 2 hour.
Tetrodotoxin (TTX)
Pupper fish has potent neurotoxin called Tetrodotoxin (TTX). TTX is known a non - protein organic compound and one of the strongest marine paralytic toxins today. TTX can be found in the liver, gonads, intestines, and skin of this fish and can cause death in approximately 60% of persons who ingest it (Ellenhorn and Barceloux, 1988). The flesh and testicle are organ with less toxin and weak toxicity except the species of lagochephalus lunaris and chelonodon patoca.
Puffer fish usually use it as biological defensive mechanism againts predatory attack.
Level of toxicity of puffer fish varies according to the type of organ, geography, season, and sexes. TTX level on female puffer fish is higher than on male puffer fish. That is because TTX level is higher on ovarium than found in testicle.
Although the toxin is very dangerous, TTX can be used in pharmacheutical field. TTX can be used as a local anesthetic drug (can block neural). Tetrodotoxin combine with bupicavaine and dexamethasone can increase the anesthetic time. The first medicine marketed based on tetrodotoxin is tectin. This medicine is developed by WEX pharmacheutical inc. In small doze, this medicine is effective to reduce the chronical pain of a cancer patient.
If cleaned and dressed properly, the puffer fish flesh or musculature is edible and considered a delicacy by some japanese.
How the puffer fish gets neurotoxin (TTX) in its body ?
TTX is originally produced by marine bacteria and distributes over a wide variety of aquatic animals. For example puffer fish, the blue-ringed octopus Hapalochlen moculosa, the carnivorous gastropod Charonia sauliae, starfish of genus Astropeten, xanthid crabs, the horseshoe crab Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda.
The TTX of puffer fish is considered tobe not indigenous, but come from toxic food organism via the food chain (i.e. their prey).
The transfer, accumulation, and elimination mechanism of TTX taken up into the puffer fish body via prey remain unclear. Recent studies have revealed that the liver of puffer fish has a specifix TTX uptake mechanism, and TTX introduced into the puffer fish body is first absorbed in the liver and then transferred to the skin throuh the circulatory system.
The main symptomps of human intoxication include numbness of lips, tongue and limbs, vomited, paresthesia, dysarthria, respiratory disstress. Death can occur due to respiratory failure in most critical cases. (Noguchi and Ebesu, 2001)
When a poisoning occur, it is essential to transport the patient immediately to a well equipped hospital. At present, there is no antidote or specific medication for TTX, and no fundamental treatment besides facilitating elimination of the toxin from the body and managing the respiratory or circulatory system using an artificial respiratory.
Reference
Ellenhorn, M.J. and Barceloux, D.G. 1988. Medical toxicology, Diagnosis and treatment of human poisoning. Elsevier Science Publishing Company Inc. New York, 977 pp.
Mehmet Aydın. 2011. Growth, Reproduction and Diet of Pufferfish (Lagocephalus sceleratus
Gmelin, 1789) from Turkey’s Mediterranean Sea Coast. Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 11: 569-576. Central Fisheries Research Institute (CFRI) Trabzon, Turkey in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan.
Noguchi, T. and J.S.M. Ebesu. 2001. Puffer poisoning: epidemiology and treatment. J. Toxicol.-Toxin
Reviews 20: 1–10.
RLMS Ari Wibowo, dkk. 2016. Eco Leather Penyamakan Ikan Buntal. Cetakan. 1. Yogyakarta: ATK Press, 2016.
Osamu Arakawa, Deng-Fwu Hwang, Shigeto Taniyama and Tomohiro Takatani. 2010. Toxins of Pufferfish That Cause Human Intoxications. Coastal Environmental and Ecosystem Issues of the East China Sea, Eds., A. Ishimatsu and H.-J. Lie, pp. 227–244. TERRAPUB and Nagasaki University,
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