Transcript:

Hello you and welcome to this fact file! Today we’re going to be looking at the pufferfish, also known as the blowfish.

There are over 120 species of pufferfish and not all of them are found in the world’s oceans. In fact, around a quarter of pufferfish species are actually freshwater fish. What’s more, the largest of the puffers, the giant pufferfish (yes, they went all out in naming that one), is a freshwater fish. The freshwater varieties can be found in South America, Central Africa and Southeast Asia while the saltwater species’ are found only in warm, coastal waters. They are not found in cold water areas, sticking only to the tropics and rarely temperate regions.

Pufferfish range in size from a tiny one inch in length to nearly three feet, a record held by the aforementioned giant. These sizes are pre-puff, mind you. When a pufferfish does feel threatened and decides to “blow-up” what is actually happening is the fish is gulping down a huge amount of water (sometimes air) in less than a second. Their stomachs have the ability to super extend - kind of like when Chester breaks into the food cabinets. It’s believed that pufferfish evolved to do this because they are relatively inadequate swimmers and are basically too slow to swim away. At least they’re cute, though, right?

Besides the puff, I’m sure you’ve heard of their other defense mechanism as well. Aside from engorging themselves to much larger than their typical size making them too big for most predator’s mouths, nearly all pufferfish are highly toxic creatures. Apparently I have a knack for picking animals that could probably kill you? If a predator managed to sneak up on a pufferfish unnoticed and gulp one down prior to the puff, they will probably regret their decision within a few hours. Due to bacteria most pufferfish synthesize from foods they eat, they produce enough toxin to kill thirty grown humans. Very few animals are able to tolerate this toxin and many will die if they are unfortunate enough to ingest a pufferfish. However, some predators, such as tiger sharks and sea snakes are unaffected by pufferfish toxin. Even humans partake in consumption of the deadly creatures. In Japan, pufferfish are considered a delicacy and are consumed on a regular basis. Chefs who prepare Fugu, as the meal is called in Japan, train for many years before serving to customers because one wrong cut could spell disaster. Even with all the training, there are still deaths due to consumption of pufferfish. Up to six people die annually from eating Fugu. However, of those, it is typical that the deaths occur either outside of restaurants or because diners demand the liver, which is the most toxic part of the fish. Still, it’s enough that the emperor himself has been banned from eating this meal.

The toxin is stored in various parts of the pufferfish including the spines, ovaries, liver and skin. Yes, skin. Pufferfish are scaleless fish which are covered in skin. They can range anywhere from being dully colored in order to blend in with their environment to brightly colored in a display of just how lethal they can be. They typically eat algae and invertebrates with the larger sized species even cracking into clam shells and mussels with their beak-like teeth (kind of like the parrotfish we talked about in an earlier episode).

Pufferfish display many different tactics of reproduction. Some freshwater puffers will reproduce in covered areas where vegetation is heavy. In aquarium environments, it has been observed that pufferfish will lay eggs that adhere to smooth surfaces, such as slate, and the male will remain with the eggs until they hatch. In the ocean, males will bring females to the surface where she will release her eggs and they will remain there until the young puffers are ready to swim back down to the ocean floor. One species, the white spotted pufferfish, eluded scientists for over a decade with their radical reproduction methods. These guys actually make rippling circles in the ocean floor in order to attract a mate. If the female is interested in the circle she will enter and lay her eggs in the middle. For years scientists had no clue what caused these “crop circles” on the ocean floor.

Typically a female will lay just under ten eggs which will hatch in a few days to a week after fertilization. Depending on the species, the young puffers will usually develop for a bit, growing their limbs after hatching, before joining the community from which their parents came. They can live nearly ten years in the wild.

For more information on the pufferfish, feel free to browse through my citations in the description below. Let me know which animal you’d like to see next in the comment. Thank you for watching and please like and subscribe for more Animal Fact Files!