• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.408-412
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• 1997

The cytogenetic analysis of river puffer, Takifugu obscurus belongs to Family Tetraodontidae, was performed. The chromosome number of T. obscurus was 44 and the fundamental number was 64. Heteromorphic sex chromosomes were not found. The mean cellular size and nuclear size were $11.01\times7.95{\mu}m$ and $4.05\times3.15{\mu}m$, respectively. The mean surface area and volume in cell and nucleus were $68.76{\mu}m^2\;and\;366.00{\mu}m^3,\;10.06{\mu}m^2\;and\;21.36{\mu}m^3$, respectively. The number of erythrocyte of both female and male was $12\~13\times10^5/m\ell$. Gill tissues from diploid individuals had cells with one or two nucleoli. These cytogenetic studies should be used for cytotaxonomy and as a valuable estimation of polyploidy to come in T. obscurus.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.577-583
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• 2001

The digestive enzyme activities such as $\alpha-amylase$, trypsin and pepsin from the laboratory-reared river puffer Takifugu obscurus were measured from the time course of 1 day until the 65 day after hatching. In the case of $\alpha-amylase$, it was showed minimum activity of 0.0493 U/mg at the total length (TL) 10 mm, and showed maximum activity of 0.1480 U/mg at 19 mmTL. Trypsin and pepsin were showed their maximum activities of 0.0264, 0.0258 U/mg and 0.0178, 0.0201 U/mg when the total length of 16 and 24 mm, and represented remarkable correlations between the changes of enzyme activity and growth rate. The ontogenetic variations of digestive enzymes were represented clearly different patterns; i.e, the pepsin showed higher activity when the periods of larva ($4\~5\;mmTL$) and juvenile II ($19\~24\;mmTL$), however, the trypsin represented maximum activity at the stages of juvenile I ($11\~16\;mmTL$) and young fish (27 mmTL), respectively.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.67-73
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• 2009

It was examined whether the common belief that "cultured puffer fishes do not contain tetrodotoxin (TTX)", the major lethal substance that accidently causes death in consumers of those fishes, is true in river puffer fish Takifugu obscurus. In mouse bioassay, lethal levels of toxins were detected in the ranks: gonad>liver>intestine>muscle>skin in wild puffer fish. In contrast, no mortality occurred in the mouse bioassay on cultured fish. However, there were sleepiness, sluggish behavior, and hind limb paralysis with the tissue extracts of cultured fish suggesting the presence of TTX or other similarly acting toxins. An attempt to confirm the presence of TTX in cultured fish with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was not very successful. The results suggest possible existence of TTX toxins or similarly acting toxins.

• Journal of Aquaculture
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.278-288
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• 2007

Shrimp culture in Korea had been rapidly developed during 1990's and the production of farmed shrimp reached 3,268 mt from 2,605 ha in 2001. However the shrimp production decreased to 2,368 mt in 2004 because of the mass mortality due to outbreak of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). WSSV which is one of the most serious threats associated with cultured shrimp around the world has given the economic damages to shrimp culture industry every year since it was found from the shrimp ponds in the west coast of the South Korea in 1993. Various polyculture technologies of shrimp with shellfish, finfish or seaweeds have been implemented to reduce economic damages by mass mortalities of shrimp. Among them, the polyculture of shrimp with carnivorous fish can suppress or delay the viral outbreak of shrimp ponds because the fish may selectively eat the moribund shrimps infected by virus. To determine the selective predatory effect of river puffer Takifugu obscures on WSSV infected shrimp, postlarvae of Litopenaeus vannamei and Fenneropenaeus chinensis. One-year old river puffers were stocked to four earthen ponds of $1,616-1,848\;m^2$ in surface area as followings: polyculture LvP, L. vannamei ($43.4/m^2$)+puffer ($0.22/m^2$); control Lv, L. vannamei ($46.9/m^2$); polyculture FcP, F. chinensis ($30.3/m^2$)+puffer ($0.25/m^2$); control Fc, F. chinensis ($24.6/m^2$). Ponds of control Fc and polyculture FcP had mass mortalities by WSSV outbreak on the $51^{st}$ and $57^{th}$ days of culture respectively. The shrimps of polyculture LvP and control Lv were harvested on the $95^{th}\;day$. Shrimp survival rates of polyculture LvP and control Lv were 32.4% and 18.2% respectively and shrimp productivity of polyculture LvP was 69.2% higher than that of control Lv. Concentration of nutrients (TAN, $NO_2-N$, $NO_3-N$) was maintained within optimal ranges for shrimp growth although that of polyculture ponds showed at least two times higher than that of control ponds. The results suggest that polyculture of L. vannamei with river puffer is higher than monoculture in survival rate and productivity. In addition, F. chinensis should be carefully cultured because this species shows much higher susceptibility to WSSV than L. vannamei.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.237-242
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• 2003

Microstructure of otoliths and early growth in total length of laboratory-reared river puffer, Takrifugu obscurus were observed from 1 to 63 days after hatching. The total length of Takifugu obscurus was 3.09${\pm}$0.02 mm, 4.96${\pm}$0.24 mm, 5.39${\pm}$0.42 mm,9.13${\pm}$0.59 mm, 10.78${\pm}$0.96, 16.40${\pm}$2.31 mm, 30.49${\pm}$l.53 mm in 1, 10, 20, 30, 34, 43, 63 days respectively. The mean radius of otoliths was 14.20${\pm}$1.21 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 1 day, 31.06${\pm}$2.31 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 10 days,57.19${\pm}$6.19 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 20 days,127.13${\pm}$13.13 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 34 days,190.79${\pm}$17.08 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 43 days and 281.85${\pm}$23.81 $\mu\textrm{m}$ in 63 days after hatching. Growth of otoliths were similar to the growth pattern in total length during 20-63 days after hatching. Hatch mark was distinguished with other growth increments and within a hatch mark two or three increments were observed. The number of growth increments was correlated with the days after hatching between 20 and 63 days after hatching.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.298-304
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• 1999

Toxic effect of landfill leachate on the larvae and juvenile stage of the river puffer fish, Takifugu obscurus, were investigated in order to assess severity of environmental impact of leachate effluent on the general population of estuarine fishes. A short-term toxic experiment was designed to test both laboratory hatched larvae and juveniles (5, 10 and 15 mm in length) and in-situ juveniles (30 and 45 mm in length) using the leachate concentrations between 0 and 16%. Lethal concentrations of 50% mortality ($LC_{50}$) were observed using Spearman-karber Method. 24hr-$LC_{50}$ appeared at the leachate concentrations ranging from 3.03 to 8.57%, 48hr-$LC_{50}$ at 2.73 to 6.21 %, 72hr-$LC_{50}$o at 2.45 to 5.53%, and 96hr-$LC_{50}$ at 2.38 to 4.93%, respectively. Leachate concentrations between 0.69 and 1.51% induced 96hr-$LC_1$. Respiratory frequency was significantly affected even at low leachate concentrations between 0.5 and 1.0% (P < 0.05). These results suggest that the leachate effluents may cause a harmful impact on the physiology of river puffer fish, especially for younger cohorts.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.23.1-23.7
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• 2016

The effects of daily feeding frequency (Exp I), water temperature (Exp II), and stocking density (Exp III) on the growth of river puffer, Takifugu obscurus, juvenile fish of 10 and 40 g in body weight were examined to develop effective techniques to produce river puffer in a non-exchange water system. In Exp I, fish were fed commercial floating feed with 45 % protein one to five times per day to apparent satiation each by hand daily for 8 weeks at $25^{\circ}C$. In both the 10- and 40-g size groups, the final body weight, daily feed consumption, and weight gain of fish fed one meal per day were significantly lower than those of fish fed five meals per day (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the final body weight, daily feed consumption, and weight gain among fish fed two, three, and five meals per day. Feed efficiency showed decreasing tendency with increasing size of fish. In Exp II, fish of 10 and 40 g in initial body weight were reared with the commercial feed at $15-30^{\circ}C$ for 8 weeks. The weight gain of fish increased with raising water temperature up to $25^{\circ}C$ and decreased drastically at $30^{\circ}C$ for both sizes. The Q10 of specific growth rate was decreased with raising water temperature from 5.04 (temperature interval, $15-20^{\circ}C$) to 0.66 ($25-30^{\circ}C$) for the 10-g fish and from 4.98 to 0.31 for the 40-g fish. In Exp III, the effect of stocking density on growth was examined with fish of 10 and 40 g in initial body weight. The final body weight for initial stocking densities of 4, 8, and $12kg/m^3$ was significantly higher than that of $20kg/m^3$ for the 10-g fish, and the final stocking density reached 10.1, 19.2, 28.7, and $39.9kg/m^3$, respectively. For the 40-g fish, the final body weight for initial stocking densities of 3 and $6kg/m^3$ was significantly higher than that of 9 and $15kg/m^3$ and the final stocking density reached 7.38, 13.5, 17.1, and $27.5kg/m^3$, respectively (P < 0.05). In both groups, weight gain tended to decrease with increasing stocking density; however, survival showed no significant difference.

• Korean Journal of Ichthyology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.185-192
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• 2007

The present experiment was carried out to study the effects of light intensity on growth, survival, caudal fin shape, body composition, skin color and blood component of river puffer, Takifugu obscurus. Four light intensities (0, 500, 1,000, 2,000 lx) were tested in duplicates for 60 days. Specific growth rate (SGR), daily feeding rate (FR) and food coefficient (FC) were reduced following to the decrease of light intensity. However in survival rate there was not significantly different among groups. The damage extent of caudal fin was increased in more strong light intensity. In body composition, moisture and crude protein were only significantly difference according to light intensity. In body color, L and a were the highest in 0 lx. In blood analysis, the content of AST, ALT, GLU significantly increased in more powerful the intensity groups. It is concluded that the supplement of low light intensity (e.g. 0 lx) recommended for the commercial scale aquaculture of river puffer in land-based tank without growth and survival retardation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.135-143
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• 1988

To study the abundances of ichthyoplankton in the Nakdong River estuary, ichthyoplankton were sampled with standard net at approximately one month intervals from February, 1987 to January, 1988. Temperature and salinity in the study area showed large seasonal fluctuations due to the inflow of Nakdong River. Among 8 taxa of pelagic eggs occured in the study area, Sillago spp. occupied 37.3% of the total eggs; Coilia spp., 35.8%; Repomucenus spp., 13.7%; Engraulis japonica, 9.4%. These 4 taxa occupied 96.4% of the total eggs. Among 26 taxa of fish larvae, Engraulis japonica was the most abundant species and occupied 36.8% of the total larvae; Gobiidae, 15.3%; Repomucenus spp., 15.0%; Coilia spp., 14.0%; Hexagrammos otakii, 6.8%; Omobranchus elegans, 4.4%. These 6 taxa occupied 92.3% of the total larvae, The densities of pelagic eggs were more than 100 eggs/ 1,000m super(3) from May to October. The densities of larvae were 3.8~221.3 larvae/1,000m super(3). They were relatively high in May, July, and August.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.77-85
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• 2011

To investigate the influence of density and feeding frequency (food amount) on growth, cannibal dynamics and survival of puffer Takifugu obscurus (TL $25.0{\pm}0.5$ mm, BW $0.53{\pm}0.03$ g) during early life history, we conducted one experiment composed with 6 density groups set up as 1.43 inds./${\ell}$, 2.14 inds./${\ell}$, 2.86 inds./${\ell}$, 3.57 inds./${\ell}$, 4.29 inds./${\ell}$ and 7.14 inds./${\ell}$. The experiment was triplicately performed in 1 ton FRP tank for 30 days. Daily food intake (DFI), feed efficiency (FE), growth, cannibal frequency, and survival rates were examined. Although not find any significant relation of density to DFI and FE, we found that growth decreased significantly with the increasing of density under 3.57 inds./${\ell}$, but significantly increased with the increasing of density over 4.29 inds./${\ell}$. Cannibal frequency and daily mortality rate was significantly increased with increasing density and decreasing feeding frequency, inducing the most poor survival rate in the highest density group and low feeding frequency. Therefore, we concluded that the density and the feeding frequencies affect sibling cannibal dynamics and survival of puffer stock.