The grass puffer (''Takifugu niphobles''), or Kusa-fugu ( ja, 草河豚), is a species of
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
in the
pufferfish family (Tetraodontidae). This common to abundant species is found in the northwest Pacific Ocean in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
(including
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
),
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
, the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.
It is primarily found in coastal waters, ranging to depths of , but is often seen in
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
water and has also been recorded briefly entering freshwater.
The grass puffer reaches up to in length.
Breeding
The grass puffer has a highly unusual breeding behavior where large groups gather seasonally in shallow water along certain beaches during
high tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables c ...
, throw themselves onto land (with the help of an incoming wave) where fertilization occurs, and then return to the water. The fertilized eggs may be swept back to the sea or stay on land under rocks for a period,
but in the latter case they only hatch when submerged by water during a later high tide.
Such a breeding behavior is not known from any other
pufferfish, but is known from the unrelated
capelin
The capelin or caplin (''Mallotus villosus'') is a small forage fish of the smelt family found in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Arctic oceans. In summer, it grazes on dense swarms of plankton at the edge of the ice shelf. Larger capelin ...
and
grunion
Grunion are two fish species of the genus ''Leuresthes'': the California grunion, ''L. tenuis'', and the Gulf grunion, ''L. sardinas''. They are sardine-sized teleost fishes of the New World silverside family Atherinopsidae, found only off ...
.
[Martin, K.L.M. (2014). Beach-Spawning Fishes: Reproduction in an Endangered Ecosystem. CRC Press. .]
Relationship with humans
The grass puffer is often caught off beaches, docks, and piers using various baits such as worms, shrimp, sea lice, or cut fish. They are popular for children to catch and even popular as pets, but their intestines contain the extremely potent pufferfish poison
tetrodotoxin
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin. Its name derives from Tetraodontiformes, an order that includes pufferfish, porcupinefish, ocean sunfish, and triggerfish; several of these species carry the toxin. Although tetrodotoxin was discovered ...
which is potentially lethal to humans.
[ The species is not specifically targeted, but sometimes taken as part of the fugu fishery.]
See also
* finepatterned puffer
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2418053
Takifugu
Fish described in 1901
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot