Kyphosus

Clements,33 it may be no accident that phaeophytes, which contain large amounts of the difflcult-to-digest mannitol, tend to be eaten by fish species such as Kyphosus, Odea, and Naso that contain elevated levels of fermentation products in their posterior intestines. 

Clements, K.D. and Choat, J.H., Comparison of herbivory in the closely-related marine fish genera Girella and Kyphosus, Mar. Biol., 127, 579, 1997. 

Rimmer, D.W., Changes in the diet and the development of microbial digestion in juvenile buffalo bream, Kyphosus cornelii, Mar. Biol., 92, 443, 1986. 

G. L. Skea, D. O. Mountfort, and K. D. Clements, Gut carbohydrases from the New Zealand marine herbivorous fishes Kyphosus sydneyanus (Kyphosidae), Aplodactylus arctidens (Aplodactylidae) and Odax pullus (Labridae), Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B, 140 (2005) 259-269. 

There have been several reports that some species of fish are psychotogenic in that ingestion can cause delirium, mental disorder or hallucinations. Indeed one of the sea chub family, Kyphosus fuscus, reputedly causes nightmares and is subsequently referred to in certain regions of the Pacific as the "dream fish". 

KwakiutI Indians of North America-415 kwashi Pancratium trianthum —ipj j / ww(Eleusinej2wt a)-i42-4,156,290,381,412 Kyphosus fiiseus (dream fish)—410... 

Trimethylarsine oxide has been reported in several marine animals, where it is almost always a trace constituent. The one exception is the fish Kyphosus sydney-anus, which has trimethylarsine oxide as the major arsenical (25). That trimethylarsine oxide is not more widespread is perhaps surprising since it is likely to be a metabolite of the same pathway producing methylarsonate and dimethylarsinate, both of which are more commonly found. Trimethylarsine oxide chromatographs rather poorly on cation-exchange columns often used for determining arsenic species, and the resultant poor detection limits for this compound may partly explain the data indicating its apparent absence in many samples. Trimethylarsine oxide is usually only rarely reported in terrestrial organisms, but more recent work (with better detection limits) has shown it to be present in various terrestrial plants and two lichen samples (26). 

Although marine animals contain many arsenic compounds, most species contain arsenobetaine as the major arsenical. Fish tend to have a simple pattern of arsenic compounds dominated by arsenobetaine. The silver drummer Kyphosus sydney-anus, however, contains trimethylarsine oxide as its major arsenical (25). Crustaceans also generally contain arsenobetaine as a high percentage of their total arsenic. It should be noted, however, that most work on fish and crustaceans has examined the muscle tissue, and the pattern of compounds may be more complex in other tissues (88). 

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