Puffer fish etc

[Divingdon]

I keep on hearing that puffer fish and porcupine fish can only puff up 3-5 times (depending on who's telling the story) in their lifetime. Can anyone with a scientific background confirm this??

 

[Midnight Star]

I would think they could do it as often as necessary since it's their primary defense mechnism; especially the spiny puffer. Maybe the problem is when they're taken out of the water, and they instead puff up with air ... little critters float like a marker buoy.

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Mike.

 

[LOOPS]

Dwarf puffers puff... It seems obvious, but there is a rule for all puffers: never let them puff air. If a dwarf puffer inflates itself with air, then its outlook is bleak. Because of the pressure of the water around it, the valves in the puffers' inflation system are usually sealed shut, so once it is full of air, it is usually doomed.

Thought this was interesting...

 

[Midnight Star]

Dwarf puffers puff... It seems obvious, but there is a rule for all puffers: never let them puff air. If a dwarf puffer inflates itself with air, then its outlook is bleak. Because of the pressure of the water around it, the valves in the puffers' inflation system are usually sealed shut, so once it is full of air, it is usually doomed.

Thought this was interesting...

Could the air from the chamber be extracted with a thin needle and hypo? At least enough to get the valves functioning again?

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Mike.

 

[espantoon]

We have a porcupine fish here at the National Aquarium in Baltimore that puffs up all the time in the Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit. It does not seem to hurt him a bit...

 

[Cacia]

wow...did not know this

although I heard that bees sting and then die (so what's the point, Darwin?)

I read recently that the puffer fish is high on the list for new pharmecueticals.

 

[Bryan]

although I heard that bees sting and then die (so what's the point, Darwin?)

The worker bee stings and in doing so rips the sting from her body. This has an effect and a side effect. The effect is to release a chemical into the air which alerts the rest of the bees in the vicinity to the mortal threat. The side effect is that one bee dies. The worker is sterile. The genes inside that bee were going to die out anyway. What matters to the genes is the future of the rest of the genes in the hive. The beehive is a collective. It only breeds through the queens and drones. The workers play no part in providing genes for the future.

(nabbed from the web somewhere)

 

[Midnight Star]

The reasons bee's die, it the stinger itself becomes "stuck" (because it's slightly barbed), in the "stingee" ... The venom sack and parts of the bee's intestines are pulled out when the bee pulls itself from the sting site; it dies. Other stinging insects that don't suffer from that particular quirk can sting as often as they like. Pufferfish contain one of the most deadly biologically occuring toxins we know ... it's amazing how a little chemical can wreck havok on such a complex system as ourselves. In this instance, size really doesnt matter.

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Mike.

 

[Midnight Star]

so what's the point, Darwin?

Here's a possibility that just crossed my mind (while I was watching StupidVideos mind ya') ... What if the cause of the sacrifice was to indirectly save the Queen (or reproducer of the hive)? The odds would be likely that if they were to attack, or sting something, whatever they attacked would probably be posing a threat to them (a predator perhaps). If the attack was to happen outside the hive, away from the main colony, and the predator wasn't deterred ... dieing bees would provide a very easy meal; satifying the predator, saving the main hive from being hit and possible loss of the queen.

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Mike.

 

[agilis]

Puffers and related blowfish, etc., have as a primary defense mechanism the ability to inflate their body size enormously with water. This increased size makes them less easily swallowed, and those species with spines become particularly unappetising. A puffer's body is not designed for air intake, which only happens when they are removed from their natural environment. Air can get trapped causing all sorts of problems, especially with bouyancy. Puffers can inflate themselves with water as often as they want with no ill effects, except for an almost total loss of mobilty while inflated.