Scrawled Filefish

[bamagreg]

Does any one know if the Scrawled Filefish is safe to eat? Seems someone told me once they were very tasty.

[ObieWan2bWet]

No, the filefish (also called foolfish, leatherjacket, or shingle fish) is dangerously poisonous. Not only is the flesh poisonous, but also the liver, gall bladder, roe, and reproductive organs can cause illness if eaten. There are some edible species but I would not take the chance.

[bamagreg]

Thanks. I cleaned the fish and the meat really looked nice, but I agree with you better safe then sorry.

[primalpete]

the scrawled are no good but the white ones are ok. I forget what they are called. We catch all the time on the drift boat around the outflows.

[donmoore]

Do these pictures look familiar? I didn't know what one was so I looked it up on the www.fishbase.org. It says there are reports of ciguatera poisoning.

ObieWan2bWet, is that the type of posioning you are talking about? Ciguatera in Texas is subject that has long been debated by the scientist, but better safe than sorry. There are alot of other fish to eat.

[Whitecustomguns]

Don did you ever get the reports from the study we shot fish for a few years ago? I think they found cigeratera in some of the fish but it wasn't the size fish they thought they were going to find it in.

[westpalmspearo]

we used to eat the scrawled files when i was younger

[donmoore]

The only thing I ever heard about the results of the University of Texas at Port Aransas cigeratera study was from that researcher who was on the boat you were captaining last year. She said the study did not find any concrete evidence of cigeratera from the all the baracuda that were submitted which was around a 100 fish, I believe.

But I have heard some rummors lately that a few cigeratera cases have been reported this year from Gulf fish. I wish I had more concrete knowledge of this. If anyone knows please share!

[ObieWan2bWet]

Don, no not speaking of ciguatera, speaking of POISONOUS, as in can kill you, hurt you. I would not take a chance with ANY filefish. The scrawled filefish eats the poisonous blue-green algae that grows on dead coral, and filefish are extremely poisonous to eat, ESPECIALLY the scrawled filefish of the lower Florida coast and the tropics.

west... if it indeed was the scrawled... you are a very fortunate guy to be here right now.

The most recent ciguatera that I recall being reported I believe was out by Marquesas and Tortuga, and then over the Bahamas way.

[westpalmspearo]

i have pictures of stringers from when i was 10-12 years old of those and we also used to catch trunk fish and crack em open tasted like lobster.............wouldnt do it anymore
but then it was 10 feet of water with a shitty polespear ate what we killed
trunkfish,lobster,nurseshark, cudas, stingrays,filefish and snapper