There are more than 120 species of pufferfish worldwide. Predators which do not heed this warning (or who are “lucky” enough to catch the puffer suddenly, before or during inflation) may die from choking, and predators that do manage to swallow the puffer will find it foul tasting and/or often lethal.
The video below shows how the natural defense works when a puffer is caught by a moray eel.
#CUTE PUFFER FISH FULL#
Pufferfish are poor swimmers and are very vulnerable to predators. Instead of trying to escape, pufferfish will ingest huge amounts of water (and even air when necessary) into their highly elastic stomachs, quickly turning themselves into a virtually inedible ball several times their normal size!Īll puffers have pointed spines, so even if they are not visible when the puffer is not inflated a hungry predator may suddenly find itself with a mouth full of a pointy ball rather than a slow, tasty fish. Despite this, many such deaths occur annually! Have a look at the video below about how carefully it is prepared and how its eaten. It is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.Īmazingly, the meat of some pufferfish is considered a delicacy in Japan and is called fugu. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. Certain internal organs, such as liver and eyes, and sometimes the skin, contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. They may be extremely cute looking but pufferfish are the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world, after the golden poison frog.
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