Diodon holacanthus Puffer Fish Over 120 species of puffers All very similar Slow Swimmers Lack dorsal fins Swim with pectoral fins Get their name from their ability to ingest large amounts of water quickly ID: 618796
Download Presentation The PPT/PDF document "Porcupine Puffer Fish" is the property of its rightful owner. Permission is granted to download and print the materials on this web site for personal, non-commercial use only, and to display it on your personal computer provided you do not modify the materials and that you retain all copyright notices contained in the materials. By downloading content from our website, you accept the terms of this agreement.
Slide1
Porcupine Puffer Fish
Diodon
holacanthusSlide2
Puffer Fish
Over 120 species of puffers.
All very similar
Slow Swimmers
Lack dorsal fins
Swim with pectoral fins
Get their name from their ability to ingest large amounts of water quickly.Fused like beakNocturnal PredatorsSlide3
Porcupines
Characteristics
Grow up to 12” (others grow up to 3 feet)
muted or cryptic coloring to blend in with their environment
Environment
Rocky Reefs
Tropical & Subtropical regions across the world.>Behavior
Very curious species
Aggressive
Diet-Carnivorous
Crabs, squid, mollusks and some echinoderms such as long
spined urchinsPredators are Tiger Sharks and sea snakesHuman Interaction some are kept as pets“Fugu” is a delicacy in some Asian countriesSlide4
Are They Dangerous?
Tetradotoxin
: A poison found
in their skin,
intestines, gonads
, and
liver.Harmful to fish and deadly to humans if ingestedFatal within 30 minutesTo humans, tetrodotoxin
is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There is enough toxin in one
pufferfish
to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote
.
Reserach scientists are working on a powerful painkiller based on tetrodotoxin.A Port Charlotte research clinic is testing a new drug which uses toxins from the pufferfish to eliminate painMany tests and trials have been done with positive results but is not available to the public yetSlide5
Citations:
1. Halstead, Bruce W.
Dangerous Marine Animals
. Centreville, Maryland: Cornell Maritime Press,1995: 226-8.
2. Thresher, Ronald E.
Reef Fish
. St. Petersburg, Florida: Palmetto Publishing Company. 1980:129-130.3. Pufferfish Tetraodontidae. Pufferfish Tetraodontidae. Retrieved from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/pufferfish/ 4. Photograph by Chris Laughlin/Animals Animals-Earth Scenes5. Pufferfish toxin helping chemo patients-
By Charlie Keegan, Charlotte County Reporter
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/21188753/pufferfish-toxin-helping-chemo-patients
6.
Tetrodotoxin for moderate to severe cancer pain: a randomized, double blind, parallel design multicenter study- Epub 2008 Feb 4Hagen NA, du Souich P, Lapointe B, Ong-Lam M, Dubuc B, Walde D, Love R, Ngoc AH; Canadian Tetrodotoxin Study Group.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18243639