''Takifugu obscurus''Eschmeyer, W.N. (ed.) (1998) Catalog of fishes., Special Publication, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. 3 vols. 2905 p. or the obscure pufferfish is a species of

euryhaline Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the short-finned molly, '' Poecilia sphenops'', which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water. The green crab ('' Carcinus m ...

anadromous Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousa ...

pufferfish Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

first described by T. Abe in 1949. It has been categorized by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

as a

least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

globally since 2014; in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, it is however classified as an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

due to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

of its

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

populations.Doopedi

/ref> The

Catalogue of Life The Catalogue of Life (CoL) is an online database that provides an index of known species of animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms. It was created in 2001 as a partnership between the global Species 2000 and the American Integrated Taxono ...

lists no subspecies of ''Takifugu obscurus''. The species prefers deeper, clearer areas of

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 ...

and

fresh Fresh may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films and television * ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film * ''Fresh'' (2009 film), a documentary film on sustainable agriculture * ''Fresh'' (2022 film), a thriller film *''Fresh with the Aust ...

water, and is found in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

, as well as rivers and

tributaries A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ('' main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which the ...

thereof such as the South Korean rivers

Geum ''Geum'' , (Latinized Greek for "taste" referencing the roots of the plant) commonly called avens, is a genus of about 50 species of rhizomatous perennial herbaceous plants in the rose family and its subfamily Rosoideae which are widely distrib ...

, Han, and Imjin, or the

Tamsui River The Tamsui River (alternatively Danshui River, ) is the third longest river in Taiwan after Zhuoshui River and Gaoping River, with a total length of , flowing through Hsinchu County, Taoyuan, Taipei and New Taipei City. It is located in the ...

. The species is endemic to

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

, the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

, and the

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

China Seas. Uses of ''Takifugu obscurus'' include human consumption, use in

animal testing Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and ''in vivo'' testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted ...

, and owning specimens as

pets A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive/ cute appearances, int ...

. As with most species of pufferfish, several organs of Takifugu obscurus contain

tetrodotoxin Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin. Its name derives from Tetraodontiformes, an Order (biology), order that includes Tetraodontidae, pufferfish, porcupinefish, ocean sunfish, and triggerfish; several of these species carry the toxin. Alt ...

, making it potentially

poisonous A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

if not prepared safely by trained persons.

Morphology

Takifugu obscurus is characterized by the following

traits Trait may refer to: * Phenotypic trait in biology, which involve genes and characteristics of organisms * Genotypic trait, sometimes but not always presenting as a phenotypic trait * Personality, traits that predict an individual's behavior. ** ...

: * Body, especially

ventral Standard anatomical terms of location are used to describe unambiguously the anatomy of humans and other animals. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position prov ...

region or "belly" covered in prickles * Dark spots on either side, above and often somewhat behind the pectoral fins * One larger dark spot surrounding the base of the dorsal fin * A blunt snout and small mouth * A maximum length of 40 cm * 15–19 dorsal soft rays, 13–16 anal soft rays, no dorsal or anal spines * While the fish is alive, a yellowish tint to the fins

References

Bibliography

* Eschmeyer, William N.: ''Genera of Recent Fishes''. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco, California, United States. iii + 697. (1990). * Eschmeyer, William N., ed. 1998. ''Catalog of Fishes''. Special Publication of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information, no. 1, vol. 1–3.

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

. San Francisco, California, United States. . * Helfman, G., B. Collette i D. Facey: ''The diversity of fishes''. Blackwell Science, Malden, Massachusetts (USA), 1997. * Kullander, S.O., 2003. Family ''

Tetraodontidae Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, ...

'' (Pufferfishes). p. 670. A: R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander i C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America.

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

: EDIPUCRS, Brazil. * Lévêque, C., 1992. ''

''. p. 868–870. A: C. Levêque, D. Paugy, i G.G. Teugels (eds.) Faune des poissons d'eaux douces et saumâtres d'Afrique de l'Ouest. Vol. 2. Coll. Faune Tropicale, no. 28. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale,

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

i O.R.S.T.O.M., París, France. * Matsuura, K., 1990: The pufferfish genus ''

Fugu Fugu (; ; ) in Japanese language, Japanese, ''bogeo'' (; 鰒魚) or ''bok'' () in Korean language, Korean, and ''hétún'' () in Standard Modern Chinese refers to tetraodontidae, pufferfish, normally of the genus ''Takifugu'', ''Lagocephalus'', o ...

'' (Abe, 1952), a junior subjective synonym of ''

Takifugu ''Takifugu'', also known by the Japanese name , is a genus of pufferfish with 25 species, most of which are native to salt and brackish waters of the northwest Pacific, but a few species are found in freshwater in Asia or more widely in the I ...

'' (Abe, 1949). Bulletin of the National Science Museum Series A (Zoology) v. 16 (no. 1): 15–20. * Matsuura, K., 2001. ''

''. Puffers. p. 3954–3957. A: K.E. Carpenter i V. Niem (eds.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Vol. 6. Bony fishes part 4 ('' Labridae'' to ''

Latimeriidae Latimeriidae is the only extant family of coelacanths, an ancient lineage of lobe-finned fish. It contains two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'', found in deep waters off the coasts of southern Africa and east-central Indonesia. In additi ...

'').

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...

, Rome. * Moyle, P. i J. Cech.: ''Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology'', 4th edition, Upper Saddle River,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, United States: Prentice-Hall. 2000. * Nelson, J.S. 2006: ''Fishes of the world''. Fourth edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken,

, United States. 601 p. * Song, L.-S., B.-Z. Liu, Z.-Z. Wang, H.-L. Li i J.-H., 2001: Phylogenetic relationships among pufferfish of genus ''

'' by RAPD analysis. Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology v. 19 (no. 2): 128–134. * Wheeler, A.: ''The World Encyclopedia of Fishes'', 2nd edition, London: Macdonald. 1985. * Yamada, U., 2002. ''

''. p. 1418–1431. A: T. Nakabo (ed.). Fishes of Japan with pictorial keys to the species (second edition). Tokai University Press, 1749 p.

External links

* This work contains translated material derived from "Takifugu obscurus" on Catalan,

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

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{{Taxonbar, from=Q1049891 obscurus Fish described in 1949