Abstract
The grass puffer, Takifugu niphobles, is a peripheral freshwater fish often seen in brackish water. In the Sai River, Miyazu, Japan, we found that the grass puffer migrate to fresh water from salt water in June and July. Most of the grass puffer stayed in fresh water for 3.6 h on average and returned to the sea during the day. A low salinity tolerance experiment indicated that the grass puffer can live in fresh water for 2 days but not for longer than 4 days. Based on these findings, we discuss the physiological effects and ecological implications of the migration.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Fisheries Cooperative Association of Yoro in Miyazu City for allowing our field research, Fukui Clothing Store for our encircling net, Tamura Auto for our electrical power supply, Hashida Electric for nighttime river illumination, Hiroyuki Doi, Masahiro Ueno and Akihiko Ida for discussions, Eri Kato for technical assistance, Setsuko Sato and Tomoko Okada for secretarial assistance, and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research 16710145, 21st Century and Global Center of Excellence Program of MEXT.
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Movie S1 Summary of Takifugu niphobles migration from SW (left) to FW (right). This video was recorded from 0800 to 0830 hours, 29 June 2004, and a 1-min movie summary is shown. The video also recorded the migration of Ayu Plecoglossus altivelis (WMV 3647 kb)
Movie S2 Summary of Takifugu niphobles migration from FW (right) to SW (left). This video was recorded from 1800 to 1830 hours, 29 June 2004, and a 30-second movie summary is shown. The video also recorded the migration of Ayu Plecoglossus altivelis (WMV 2248 kb)
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Kato, A., Maeno, Y. & Hirose, S. Brief migration of the grass puffer, Takifugu niphobles, to fresh water from salt water. Ichthyol Res 57, 298–304 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-009-0150-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-009-0150-x