Sea fish barracuda is very similar to pike. Her body resembles a long cylinder, covered with small scales.
A slightly pointed head with strong teeth and front fangs also looks like pike on the head. Barracuda can be distinguished by a strong dorsal fin, decorated with five "rays", and a well-developed lateral. Sfirena (also called this fish) is appreciated in some countries for very tasty meat. However, few people know that not every barracuda is edible. Fish can cause severe, sluggish, but incurable poisoning. Siguater (poisoning) begins with severe muscle pain. Later, ulcers on the skin join them, the work of the nervous system is disrupted. The disease gives so many symptoms that not every doctor can correctly diagnose. Often the ciguater ends in the death of the patient. However, not all types of barracudas are poisonous. In total, there are from 20 to 26 varieties of these mullet-like predators. This is a large barracuda, silver, Japanese, yellow-tailed, striped, blunt, red, Australian and others.
So different barracudas
All types of barracudas live only in the seas of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Ideal conditions for them - a subtropical climate. Off the coast of Central America is the Great Barracuda. The fish feeds on puffer meat living among corals. Poisonous substances accumulate in its fins, and the sefiren becomes poisonous. It is she who calls the ciguater. True, some sources claim that a large barracuda eats only tuna and sometimes even attacks bathers. The giant is often mistaken for a shark. Individuals of the Great Barracuda grow up to 300 cm. But due to their toxicity, they are of little interest to fishermen. Off the coast of Japan, East Africa, there is another barracuda. The fish (striped) is small - only up to 60 cm, but very tasty.
She is highly regarded by the Japanese. Near Mexico and Southern California there are many representatives of the species "silver barracuda." This fish is the basis of fishing in San Diego and Los Angeles. Oblong individuals with silver-gray sides, a greenish back, dark stripes along the body and a head, remotely resembling a pike, sometimes enter the Black Sea from the Mediterranean. This is also a barracuda. Fish (small-scaled sefiren) lives at shallow depths, is distinguished by a predatory disposition, like all its relatives. Sirens can wait for the victim in the thickets or among stones, or they can attack anchovies or the like with small flocks and pursue them for a long time. At the same time, barracudas rarely gather in large flocks. Even in the Gulf of Guinea, where there are a lot of predators, they are rarely harvested by trawl, but often with hooks. Barracuda meat is one of the favorite in Africa. Four species of sefire are found in the Mediterranean Sea, eight - in the Red. In the Black Sea, fish occasionally swim from the Mediterranean.
What is useful barracuda
Juicy meat during cooking loses only a fifth of the water, and fat remains almost all. Fragrant fish replenishes the body's reserves with polyunsaturated acids and antioxidants, dissolves cholesterol, improves coagulability, and normalizes vision.
