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All puffed out: do pufferfish hold their breath while inflated?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 13:15 authored by McGee, GE, Clark, TD
© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.The inflation response of pufferfishes is one of the most iconic predator defence strategies in nature. Current dogma suggests that pufferfish inflation represents a breath-holding response, whereby gill oxygen uptake ceases for the duration of inflation and cutaneous respiration increases to compensate. Here, we show that the black-saddled pufferfish (Canthigaster valentini) has an excellent capacity for oxygen uptake while inflated, with uptake rates increasing to five-times that of resting levels. Moreover, we show that this species has negligible capacity for cutaneous respiration, concluding that the gills are the primary site of oxygen uptake while inflated. Despite this, postdeflation recovery of aerobic metabolism took an average of 5.6 h, suggesting a contribution of anaerobic metabolism during pre-inflation activity and during the act of ingesting water to achieve inflation.

History

Publication title

Biology Letters

Volume

10

Issue

12

Article number

20140823

Number

20140823

Pagination

1-4

ISSN

1744-9561

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

The Royal Society Publishing

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Rights statement

Copyright 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Coastal or estuarine biodiversity

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