title: All puffed out: do pufferfish hold their breath while inflated?
abstract: 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, post-deflation 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.
authors.affiliation: AIMS@JCU Collaborative Program, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia georgia.mcgee@my.jcu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Georgia Evelyn
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: McGee
authors.affiliation: Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3 Townsville MC, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.
authors.forename: Timothy Darren
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Clark
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D012119:Respiration; D023721:Tetraodontiformes / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: cutaneous; inflation; metabolic rate; oxygen uptake; predator defence; pufferfish