The
Pufferfish
Other names of it are the blowfish, fugu, swellfish, and
globefish is called the pufferfish because when it is
endangered, it puffs up its normal size by gulping
water.
About 100 species of pufferfish have been observed. Most
Pufferfish are found in sub-tropical and tropical marine
waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. In
brackish and fresh water, some puffers live.
Poison:
Tetrodoxin,
an extremely strong, paralyzing poison is in many parts
of the blowfish (including the liver, muscles, skin, and
ovaries. There is no known cure for this poison. Fugu
which is a Japanese pufferfish is eaten in Japan, but is
only cooked by specially-trained chefs who can lessen
the amount of poison. Many Japanese diners have died
from eating this poisonous fish.
Food:
Pufferfish
eat meat. They eat corals, sponge, sea urchin, other
echinoderms, and small
crustaceans.
Pufferfish crush and grind up their prey with their
heavy, fused teeth.
Body:
Pufferfish
range in size from a few inches to almost 2 feet long. A
few species of puffer fish have spine on their body, but
many do not. The skin of puffers is very stretchy. They
have a small mouth, a tube-shaped body and relatively
small fins and almost circular when out of breath.
