World Congress on
Recent Advances in Aquaculture Research & Fisheries

Biography:

Abstract:

Puffer fish are commonly distributed in the tropics, but are relatively uncommon in temperate regions and completely absent from cold waters. These fishes are the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world. Puffer fishes are diverse group of aquatic organisms and are non-target species incidentally or accidentally caught by trawling in India. These fishes are  known  to  contain  a  toxin called  Tetrodotoxin  in  the  skin,  liver,  gonads  and  intestines, it is highly toxic to humans. Puffer fish poisoning is considered to be the common cause of fish poisoning along the Asian coast and local Puffer fish poisoning are also reported in Andaman Islands. In the Andaman waters, these animals are commonly found. In the South Andaman Sea, a total of 16 species belonging to the family tetraodontidae (13 species) and Diodontidae (3 Species) are reported. The identification of Tetraodontiformes is very difficult due to their analogous nature and their biological study in India is in insufficient level due to their poor taxonomic descriptions. Hence, they are treated as trash fish and dumped with other uneconomical fishes. Even though puffer fishes are toxic, they are considered as delicacy in many countries especially Japan. These countries investigate the food resource and gut content analysis of puffer fishes. These studies could provide essential information about nutrients requirements of puffer fishes, which are helpful for formulating the artificial feed for the fish cultivation commercially. In India, the utilization of liver lipids as sources of fish oil and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from the puffer fish as a cheap and easily available source. In this study, to understand the general biology of Andaman puffer fishes with special reference on diet preferences and length-weight relationship. Ten species of puffer fishes belonging to two families and five genera including a new genera Chilomycterus reticulates (Linnaeus, 1758) were collected and identified from the coastal waters of Andaman Islands. The length-weight relationship and gut content analysis of nine local puffer fishes, The average length-weight relationship of nine species is depicted namely Arothron reticularis (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (n=53); Arothron immaculatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (n=55); Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) (n=53); Arothron nigropunctatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (n=51); Arothron stellatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) (n=50); Chelodon patoca (Hamilton, 1822) (n=35); Diodon hystix (Linnaeus, 1758) (n=50); Diodon liturosus (Shaw 1804) (n= 49) and  Lagocephalus guentheri (Miranda-Riberio, 1915) (n=38) were calculated to be W=0.1599, W=0.1294, W=0.4614, W=0.0081, W=2.9841, W=0.091, W=0.4709 W=0.0982 and W=0.10605. The growth coefficient of these nine species was b>3, which showed positive allometric growth and the fish becomes heavier in relation to its length. Studied species collected from Andaman waters exhibited wide range of variations in body size (5.1-54cm) and weight (9-2247g). Gut content analysis indicated that puffer fishes are omnivorous since fragments of corals, sponges, algae, mollusks, rock oyster and fish are commonly found in their intestines. The general biology investigation reports provide the fundamental information about local puffer fish resources. In future, fully utilize the puffer fish resources from the Andaman Sea, the puffer fish should be a good candidate for mariculture in the near future. Apart from processing their flesh for human consumption, the viscera of puffer fish can be explored to produce the TTX. Due to its specific blocking action towards voltage gated sodium channel that can cease the transmission of action potential, TTX has the potential to develop as a drug lead candidate for local anesthetics or analgesics.