Fugu Fish

fugu fish - blowfish, balloon fish, puffer fish

Fugu is Japanese name and it means Pacific Ocean Native Fish, better known as fugu fish.

Fugu Fish is a member of Tetraodontoid family, these types of fishes are extremely toxic and they tend to expand their bodies by up to an astonishing 300 times! They are generally very unattractive however they have a unique ability to puff their bodies and expand, some even have razor sharp spikes that come out for their protection.

Fugu fish also know as blowfish or even balloon fish is able to stretch its body due to its reinforced collagen fibres, the fish pumps air of water into his stomach and the collagen fibres stretches making him 300 times bigger and wider!

This astonishing ability of the fugu fish makes extremely hard for the predators to eat or swallow him. Once he is inside of the predators mouth or even stomach, he can still stretch his body making the predator no choice but to letting him out. However if for some reason the fugufish is killed and swallowed, the extreme fugu fish skin toxins can still kill some small predator fishes.

The fugu fish has a beak like mouth with strong jaws, however it has also one big disadvantage, the teeth and muscle arrangement of fugufish makes him little slower to commit a bite. This allows plenty of time to small and faster fishes to swim away quickly without getting swallowed by the fugu fish.

As mentioned earlier, fugu fish extremely toxic, here are some of his toxic organs: ovaries, testicles, skin, muscles and particularly the liver! It contains high level of tetrodotoxin, a powerful poison. Tetrodotoxin is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide, and one fish contains enough poison to kill 30 people. Acting mainly on the nervous system, the symptoms in order of severity are:

  • Physical discomfort
  • Pallor
  • Dizziness
  • Prickling or tingling of the mouth
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhoea
  • Numbness
  • Hypersalivation
  • Sweating
  • Weakness
  • Subnormal temperature
  • Hypotension
  • Rapid weak pulse
  • Respiratory distress/arrest
  • Death

There is no known antidote. And this fish is considered a delicacy in Japan. There are lots of tasty fans there of love to adventure and eat this poisonous fish, and a lot of them have died eating it!

fugu fish japan

fugu fish japanese dish

There are a lot of restaurants in Japan that specialises it Fugu Fish (they call it puffer fish), they must have a licence in order to cook and buy fugu.

It requires over 30 steps to prepare fugu fish, these preparations milds the tetrodotoxin making it eatable. Yet, it still had killed a lot of people. There are between 30 to 100 cases each year where people died eating this poisonous fish.

So if you want to try this fish, be aware of its danger and make sure that you go to a licensed restaurant. And if you suffer from any of the symptoms mentioned above, it is highly recommended that you go to a hospital straight away! Remember there is no cure for tetrodotoxin!