Reef-dwelling fish

Stypodiol, epistypodiol and stypotriol are secondary diterpene metabolites produced by the tropical brown algae Stypopodium zonaie. These compounds display diverse biological properties, including strong toxic, narcotic, and hyperactive effects upon the reef-dwelling fish. In the laboratory of A. Abad an efficient stereoselective synthesis of stypodiol and its C14 epimer, epistypodiol, was accomplished from (S)-(+)-carvone. The key transformations in the synthesis of these epimeric compounds were an intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction, a sonochemical Barbier reaction and an acid-catalyzed quinol-tertiary alcohol cyclization. 

From ciguateric Moray eels. Acts like batra-chotoxin qv. Ciguatera is also the term applied to the syndrome (headache, paraesthesiae, lassitude, haematuria, pruritis, cardiac dysrhythmias, vomiting, diarrhoea) caused sporadically by the consumption of a range of reef-dwelling fish. In both types, the source of the poison may be the blue-green algae or other components of the diet but detailed descriptions of the chemical identity of the poison(s) are not available. 

Even a neutral chemical cue can trigger alarm responses in fish if they had experienced it together with a true alarm signal. A coral-reef dwelling goby, Asterropteryx semipunctatus, learned to associate a novel chemical cue from a... 

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