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The ground is covered with mugwort and the reed shoots are short, which is the time when puffer fish are about to come up.

As we all know, pufferfish is always associated with "delicious" and "poisonous". When it comes to pufferfish, poisoning cases are not uncommon. The ancients also said that "eating pufferfish is risking one's life". Since March this year, news reports have said that there have been many cases of poisoning caused by eating pufferfish in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and all of them occurred during family gatherings.

Source: Weibo screenshot

Everyone is familiar with fish like pufferfish, and photos of bulging pufferfish have been widely circulated on the Internet. However, will eating pufferfish cause poisoning? Some netizens said that they had eaten pufferfish but did not get poisoned. So, can pufferfish be eaten? Should this fish be called "pufferfish" or "pufferfish"?

Let’s talk about “pufferfish” today.

The strange-looking pufferfish

Pufferfish, often called pufferfish , is commonly known as air-blown fish, bubble fish, blow-belly fish, chicken bubble fish, Qing Langjun, and thorny fish. In the Chinese context, the original meaning of "豚" is "little pig", which is a piglet. From this, "pufferfish" is extended to mean "pig in the river", which is various freshwater dolphins, such as the Yangtze River dolphin, the Ganges river dolphin, and the possibly extinct Baiji dolphin.

However, in the descriptions of ancient people, pufferfish were called "pufferfish" because their appearance was similar to that of piglets, so the term "pufferfish" is not wrong.

Pufferfish generally refers to fish belonging to the families Dicynodontidae, Tricynodontidae, Tetracynodontidae and Boxfishes in the order Tetracynomorpha. Pufferfish are widely distributed in seawater and freshwater areas between 45 degrees north latitude and 45 degrees south latitude around the world.

This type of fish usually has a round body, a large head and chest, and a small tail. It has no scales on its body, and no pelvic fins or girdle bones. It uses its pectoral fins and dorsal fins to assist in propulsion when swimming, and can rotate very flexibly, like a small submarine.

South American dolls source 丨 Wikipedia

Because of this, some ornamental pufferfish are often nicknamed "submarine", such as the green pufferfish and the two-spot pufferfish.

Pufferfish are also ornamental fish. In aquariums, ornamental pufferfish are generally called doghead or baby pufferfish according to their body size. Common ornamental pufferfish include the chocolate baby pufferfish of the genus Carinoetraodon distributed in pure freshwater, the squarehead pufferfish of the Tocantins River, and the crown doghead and zebra doghead of the genus Tetraodon.

Why do pufferfish swell?

Pufferfish swims relatively slowly and is easily captured by predators. In order to protect itself, it has evolved a self-defense mechanism called "body expansion".

When threatened, pufferfish can quickly suck water or air into its extremely elastic stomach, expanding to several times its size in a short period of time , surprising predators. In this way, predators are often unable to swallow or catch the pufferfish ball, and have no choice but to let it drift away with the water.

Some pufferfish are more aggressive, such as the spiny pufferfish of the family Acanthus, which even have spines on their bodies. When they swell, the spines on their bodies will stand up, making it difficult for predators to swallow them. If predators dare to swallow them, the end result is often that the pufferfish gets stuck in their mouths and both perish.

Source of porcupinefish: Baidu Encyclopedia

In some travel videos and short videos, many people like to deliberately irritate pufferfish to make them swell into balls for fun. However, it should be noted that pufferfish are easily injured in the process of repeated inflation and deflation , so that they cannot inflate again, or they cannot deflate after inflating and can only wait to die.

Therefore, it is recommended that when you see or catch pufferfish in the wild, you should observe them carefully and release them. Do not repeatedly stimulate them to inflate, which is not good for pufferfish.

How to avoid pufferfish poisoning?

The delicious pufferfish is a favorite of many food lovers, but pufferfish is highly poisonous and can kill you if you are not careful. How can you eat safe pufferfish?

In fact, not all pufferfish are poisonous. Most species of Tetraodon and Boxfish are poisonous, and Boxfish carry boxfish toxins that are more toxic than tetrodotoxin.

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is produced by the symbiotic bacteria "Pseudoalteromonas" in pufferfish. It is one of the most toxic neurotoxins found in nature. It is a non-protein neurotoxin with a toxicity of about 1,200 times that of cyanide. Only 25 mg of toxin can cause death.

Source: Wikipedia

The distribution of tetrodotoxins in different species of pufferfish varies, and can be found in different parts of the body, such as the internal organs, muscles, blood, and skin. The toxicity also varies with the seasons. For example, during the breeding season, the toxicity of pufferfish often becomes stronger.

Pufferfish poisoning is extremely dangerous. When poisoning occurs, the toxin is quickly absorbed by the human intestine and transported to the whole body through the blood circulation. The specific manifestations are numbness around the mouth at the beginning of poisoning, followed by general paralysis, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, and difficulty breathing. Pufferfish poisoning reactions are severe and short-lived, with a shortest incubation period of only a few minutes. Death can occur as soon as 17 minutes after onset (if the disease lasts for more than 8 hours without death, it can generally recover).

At present, there is no specific antidote for the treatment of pufferfish poisoning. The only way to help patients excrete toxins from their bodies as soon as possible is through measures such as vomiting, catheterization, and gastric lavage.

Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In 1990, in order to ensure food safety for consumers, my country introduced the "Aquatic Product Hygiene Management Methods", which stipulated that pufferfish were prohibited from entering the market. Later, with the maturity of the non-toxic pufferfish farming industry, my country artificially bred two non-toxic pufferfish species, the redfin pufferfish (also known as tiger pufferfish) and the dark-spotted pufferfish. In 2016, the state issued the "Notice on the Conditional Liberalization of the Processing and Operation of Farmed Redfin Pufferfish and Farmed Dark-spotted Pufferfish", and the "pufferfish ban" was officially lifted.

However, this lifting of the ban only applies to processed pufferfish, and live and whole fish are still not allowed to be sold in the market. Currently, the most common edible pufferfish include redfin pufferfish, dark-striped pufferfish, chrysanthemum yellow pufferfish, bow-spotted pufferfish (also known as green pufferfish), and leopard pufferfish.

Dark-striped pufferfish Source: Baidu Encyclopedia

In addition, pufferfish poison is not only found in pufferfish, but also in blue-ringed octopus, cone snails, and some types of salamanders, so special care is required when handling them. Some time ago, someone in Shenzhen found blue-ringed octopus mixed in with the octopus he bought. If eaten accidentally, it is very harmful.

Spring is the breeding season for pufferfish, and also the peak season for pufferfish poisoning. Please be careful not to buy and use wild or unknown pufferfish. If you want to taste the delicious pufferfish, you must buy it from regular channels . If you experience pufferfish poisoning, remember to seek medical attention as soon as possible to avoid missing the opportunity for treatment.