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Puffer fish are cool. This thread prompted me to look them up on Wikipedia:
"The puffer's toxin is called tetrodotoxin, or more precisely anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin. It is also found within other animals such as the blue-ringed octopus, cone snail, and in certain varieties of newt. Tetrodotoxin is produced within the puffers by bacteria, which are acquired through food. This means that puffers raised in captivity do not contain tetrodotoxin, and therefore are not poisonous until they come into contact with the bacteria. The puffer itself has immunity to the poison due to a mutation in the protein sequence of the Sodium ion channel on the cell membranes.
Tetrodotoxin is an exceptionally lethal poison. Tetrodotoxin is approximately 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. In animal studies with mice, 8 μg tetrodotoxin per kilogram of body weight killed 50% of the mice (see also LD50). It is estimated that a single puffer has enough poison to kill 30 adult humans.
...they have the smallest-known genomes yet found amongst the vertebrate animals, while containing a genetic repertoire very similar to other fish and thus comparable to vertebrates generally."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pufferfish#Other_facts
Fascinating.
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Stupid guys have fun with a puffer fish
