Hi David,

That could be so, there must sure be some mechanism at
work to cause the potency of the venom to vary.  Very
interesting information about the fish toxins, also.  I did
witness several envenomations of Conus textile by others
of the same species, however, and none of them died.  It
always had an effect one them, by slowing them or making
them inactive for a period of hours, but they never failed
to recover.  I witnessed a similar situation when a Conus
textile envenomated a smaller Conus canonicus in the top
of the foot.  The C. canonicus definitely showed effects
from having been envenomated, but within several hours
appeared to have recovered, apparently with no lasting
effects.  Every other species that was envenomated by
Conus textile in my aquarium died.

Cheers,


Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lum" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 1:42 AM
Subject: Re: conus toxin


> All,
>
>     Perhaps the reason why a conotoxin is more potent in the teeth than
> when it is in the venom sac has to do with a reaction with a component
> in seawater.  While a conotoxin remains in the venom sac of a particular
> species, it has no effect on the animal carrying it; however, if that
> animal has the same conotoxin injected into its tissues it can die.
> I've seen Conus textile envenomize and kill each other in an aquarium.
> A similar phenomenon may occur with cowfish and boxfish.  These fish
> have glands that can secrete toxins.  Under normal conditions, the fish
> do not suffer from their own toxicity.  However, when one of these
> fishes is stressed, the poisons it releases are very potent and can even
> kill the fish that secreted them if it does not quickly move away from
> its chemical cloud.  I've observed this from collecting Ostracion
> meleagris and Lactoria fornasini.
>
> Regards,
> Dave

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