Does puffer fish skin release ttx toxin?

[Christie_ZXR]

Oooh!! I found me an answer! Well...sort of.

After 2 years in a tank, a sample of T rubripes livers (Fugu- the food one) had less than 2-8 mu/g. of ttx. Whatever the heck that means.

 

[puffykid]

mu = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-

probably a gram? since we are measuring a tissue, I think they are taking the dry weight? I'm not sure here.

So it kind of sounds like there is next to none.
They are finding .000002 to .000008 in 1 gram of dry liver tissue.



"Bit of random info to add to the collection...takifugu obscurus are edible and takifugu ocellatus aren't according to the japanese guidelines. Yet the two look almost identical, obscurus is a bit prettier, with lines as well as spots, occelatus just has spots."

lol thats interesting! maybe they could study the differences in their diet as a starting point to narrowing down the food that causes the formation of the toxin.

 

[Fat Homer]

But considering its more poisonous than cyanide, i'm guessing even that small amount could have some effects on a person if ingested?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[Christie_ZXR]

Wiki'd this one:

[h=3]Toxicity[/h] The Material Safety Data Sheet for TTX lists the oral median lethal dose (LD[SUB]50[/SUB]) for mice as 334 μg per kg.[SUP][26][/SUP] Assuming the lethal dose for humans is similar, 25 milligrams (0.000881 oz) of tetrodotoxin would be expected to kill a 75 kg (170 lb) person. The amount needed to reach a lethal dose by injection is much smaller, 8 μg per kg,[SUP][27][/SUP] or a little over one-half milligram (0.00002 oz) to kill a 75 kg (170 lb) person.

Can someone check the numbers? I'm a little confused on this one.

puffykid, it seems they both contain the poison. Not sure of the reasoning behind one being okay to eat and one not. Maybe because obscurus is a bit bigger and easier to chop up? That's just a guess though.

That's a good one on their diets:

http://159.226.73.51/bitstream/研究所代...fugu ocellatus) during spawning migration.pdf


It's only a short article.