fugu fish (河豚鱼) in an aquarium

Does anyone ever eat fugu fish?

Fugu fish, also known as puffer fish, フグ or ふぐin Japan and 河豚鱼 in China. They live in the sea and some of them in fresh water (淡水)in Yangtze river in China [0]. 

It is a delicacy in some restaurants in Japan. In Song (宋) dynasty it was as one of the “three delicacies of the Yangtze (长江三鲜)” [1].

But eating it is a risk on your own. Its liver, ovary, eyes and skin contain a deadly poison, tetrodotoxin （TTX）， a neurotoxin for blocking the sodium channel [1], [2] (for elucidating the mechanism of the ionic mechanism of nerve excitation and inhibition, including the sodium and potassium channels, Hodgkin and Huxley won 1963 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine [3]; for potassium channel’s 3 D structure, MacKinnon won 2003 Nobel prize in Chemistry) [4]). There is no antidote [1],[5]. Victims of the toxin are conscious, but hard to breathe, dizzy, exhausted... There are some poisoning cases each year, including fatality [1], [2].

There are around 200 species of fugu fish [1].

Long porcupine puffer in an aquarium in October:

 

[0]. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B2%B3%E8%B1%9A/14903992

[1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu

[2]. https://notesofnomads.com/poisonous-fugu-pufferfish-tokyo-japan/

[3]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3424716/#:~:text=Together%20with%20John%20Carew%20Eccles,excitation%20and%20inhibition%20in%20the

[4]. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2003/popular-information/

[5]. https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2185125/pufferfish-china-beijing-diners-lured-delicacy-now-country-has