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About blowfish

Characteristics of Blowfish

The relationship between human beings and blowfish dates back to ancient Egypt, as shown by pictures of blowfish found on wall reliefs in ancient Egyptian tombs. Blowfish belong to the Order Tetraodontiformes, and about 340 kinds have been confirmed to exist. They are widely distributed in the Temperate and Tropical zones including the Caribbean Sea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Hawaii and Africa. Some live in freshwater and brackish-water regions but most of them live in seawater regions.
In general, blowfish are classified as follows: 37 kinds of Itomaki-fugu and hako-fugu Tetraodontidae in Suborder file fish of Order Tetraodontiformes, one kind of Uchiwa-fugu Tetraodontidae, 120 kinds of Tetraodontidae and 19 kinds of Diodontidae in Suborder Tetraodontiformes of Order Tetraodontiformes.
Blowfish have distinctive characteristics, which are different from those of other kinds of fish.

Feature 1: Deadly poison
This feature is well known and very dangerous. The poison level differs depending on the kind of blowfish and the part of the fish. (Refer to [Blowfish Poison] →.)

Feature 2: Four plate-like teeth
Tetoraodon, the scientific name for blowfish, is derived from the fact that they have four teeth. As the name indicates, blowfish have four plate-like teeth; two in the upper jaw and two in the lower jaw.

Feature 3: Ballooning
Blowfish have a special type of stomach, which is partly like a bag. They suck in both air and water. Blowfish blow up their stomach by closing the sphincters at the inlet and outlet of the stomach bag.

In China, the famous poet So Shoku wrote a poem about waiting for the season when he would be able to eat blowfish. In Tonga, Fiji and Western Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean, people eat Diodontidae blowfish. Although people are aware that blowfish are dangerous, since they contain poison, they are fascinated with their palatability. Perhaps nobody loves blowfish as much as the Japanese. We can speculate that people have been eating blowfish since ancient times, because blowfish bones have been excavated from shell mounds of the Jomon era.