Puffed-up blowfish aren't holding their breath

Pufferfish can balloon into a spikey sphere within moments of sensing a nearby threat, and while it may seem like these creatures hold their breath as they inflate, they can actually breathe as they puff up. But this trick may actually tire pufferfish out and put them at risk of being eaten once they've deflated, a new study finds.

Pufferfish, also known as blowfish, can quickly expand by gulping water into their elastic stomachs. In the movie Finding Nemo, the pufferfish Bloat inflates in an instant and awkwardly floats away like a beach ball, but it turns out that the fishes' puff has nothing to do with holding in air, the researchers found. Read more...

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