Sphyraenidae

The family Sphyraenidae contains the barracudas. This family contains only 1 genus and 29 species. Originally barracudas were considering to be in the genus of esox, though it is now in sphyarena. Small barracuda tend to congregate in schools, however when they become large enough the become solitary fishes. Generally these fish get up to 1.5m in length. Barracudas are specialized to be fast start, rather than distance swimmers. Thus, their fins are located more caudally than rostralling. Ciguatera posioning tends to build up in their tissues, and when eaten it may cause the indavudal to become sick. This is passed from microorgansims which small fish eat, and then the barracuda will eat the small fish. Over time bioaccumulation occurs and the posion builds in the barracudas tissue. One hypothesis about why the poison does not effect the fish, but effects a human that eats the fish is that, the posion itself is in a tissue not being broken down (ie: its muscles, unless under starvation conditions). However when eaten, this tissue is broken down, thus releasing the posion.