"Cudezilla"

Good thread title BTW.

Quote from Emil

Thanks to all for the kind words. I used a RA vecta 120cm that has had a hammerhead muzzle installed after market. The gun belongs to JC and is his pet rig.

Hahaha, that is MY gun! JC has been borrowing it for the last year and a half. Oh, and it's a 115cm...

Buena pesca Emilito!

G

EMil, I like to say I plugged the barrel, but its been so long... I never had it flood though, and have taken it down 80ft. The muzzle pin never used to move either, but it seems some super glue or the like should fix that. I'm glad to see someone is using that gun...

G

Nice fish Emil! :thumbsup2:

I have a question: Is it safe to eat such a big cuda in Florida?

I love their taste (and texture), but here in Puerto Rico the risk to get ciguatera is so big that I don't shoot them anymore...

Emil,
hella Cuda and King:thumbsup2:.

Marco,
ciguatera from cudas has always been a problem in Florida, especially for us Cubanos:D.

Quote from Marco

I have a question: Is it safe to eat such a big cuda in Florida?

Seriously I've eaten a lot of Cuda here and never had a problem. It's probably the fish I eat most.

Quote from Toledo970

Emil,
hella Cuda and King:thumbsup2:.

Marco,
ciguatera from cudas has always been a problem in Florida, especially for us Cubanos:D.

Ya me jodiste....

Yo soy venezolano. Cómo hago?

Seriously, I've got ciguatera 3 times now and one from a relatively small cuda. I don't eat them anymore.

Quote from Toledo970

ciguatera from cudas has always been a problem in Florida, especially for us Cubanos:D.

I would say exactly the opposite from my perspective eating them off Florida's coast. I've ate cudas quite a bit and have had commercial guys also tell me they have never had a problem.

The cudas up here where Emil and I dive are likely to never come into contact with ciguatera. The bottom structure up here is much more different than down south and in the caribean.

In all my life i was under the impresion that cudas close to the shore where more expose to ciguatera due to the small fishes they eat around that can carry it. But the ones in deep water or blue water are good for eating. Same problem with Hog Fish (Capitan like they say in Puerto rico.) Is known that Hog's Carry lots of ciguatera as well. But the ones from deep waters dont. I have got lots of hogs in my life and only very few got family members sick. all of them taken close to shore, the rest of them were taken on waters far from shores, Bays, or rivers, on waters over 60 feet deep and they were clean. Cudas I like a lot but i think because i eat only the small ones from the deep waters i have never goten sick. Up to 20 pounds. Cudas over that weight i use for chumming:D.

Quote

Una pregunta, con todo el respeto...
¿Ustedes se comen esas picuas?

Christian
Puerto Rico

Cual seria la otra razon para matar a esos animales?

Mercado.christian

Mucha gente no come la picuda en Puerto Rico por miedo a ciguatera, pero la realidad es que hay muchas especies como la picuda que sufren el mismo problema,desde el mero hasta el capitan. No hay mucha diferencia pero si te puedo decir que la carne de la picuda es buena. Si yo veo un pescado que tiene una descoloracion o un olor malo:nono: nunca me lo como no importa que especie sea. Como el Guacamayo(cotorro) muchas personas no lo pescan por no tener que escamarlos pero son excelentes pescados con una carne de muy buena calidad.:) Espero que eso conteste tu pregunta.

A mi me gusta el desafiio de coger un buen aguajis o especialmente una buena cubera. Pero en cuanto a comer me da igual. La verdad es que mas alla del buen sentimiento por haber cojido un buen ejemplar, los otros pescados se los doy a personas que los aprecian mas. En mi freo se queda la picuda nada mas. Es facil a limpiar, da mucha carne con muy pocas espinas y sabe bien.

Quote from pargo

A mi me gusta el desafiio de coger un buen aguajis o especialmente una buena cubera. Pero en cuanto a comer me da igual. La verdad es que mas alla del buen sentimiento por haber cojido un buen ejemplar, los otros pescados se los doy a personas que los aprecian mas. En mi freo se queda la picuda nada mas. Es facil a limpiar, da mucha carne con muy pocas espinas y sabe bien.

Te entiendo completamente como cazadores siempre vamos en busca de una buena presa como trofeo pero no importa lo que pesquemos nada se echa a perder. En cuanto a una picuda de ese size yo no creo que yo le meta el diente por experiencias personales con la ciguatera en familiares. pero se que hay muchas personas que se lo comen como si nada y son bien agradecidos. Yo siepre regalo o vendo ejemplares bien grande. Y me quedo con los que den un size para cocinar bien en el grill. como de 14-20 lbs o que los filetes quepan en el grill..:thumbsup2: Y cierto la picuda es carne de calidad pero tu sabras que hay muchas personas que no la quieren ni probar por falta de conocimiento. Pero a mi no me importa por que eso significa mas para mi.:D

Quote from Rolo

I would say exactly the opposite from my perspective eating them off Florida's coast. I've ate cudas quite a bit and have had commercial guys also tell me they have never had a problem.

The cudas up here where Emil and I dive are likely to never come into contact with ciguatera. The bottom structure up here is much more different than down south and in the caribean.

Rolo,
I have eaten as much or more cuda than anyone else. It's delicious. My grandfather was a fisherman. What Cuban fisherman doesn't eat Cuda? One thing though, I know personally, people that have gotten really bad Ciguatera from Cudas. Some to the point of losing hair and having bad neurological problems. In two cases it came from large cudas, but small ones can do it too.

Anyhow, get one of those kits and call it a day. I love, and will always eat cudas.
I agree with Dan on the fact that Cudas are much better food fare than other more sought after fish. Otra cosa, a mi me gustan los roncos fritos tambien...:D:D

Marco, una cosa que no creo que nadie ha mencionado. Una vez que obtines ciguatera la persona queda mucho mas propensa a intoxicaciones. Si ya has estado "enciguatado" yo te recomiendo que ignores a las barracudas y te enfoques en otros peces menos riesgosos. Creo que tiene que ver con el sistema inmunologico que queda debil despues de la intoxicacion. Se de un caso donde una barracuda fue consumida por una familia entera y el unico que fue afectado fue el hombre, nadie mas. El medico dijo que se debia a una ciguatera que el habia cogido previamente. Comparto lo que se, estoy seguro que en el internet debe haber mas informacion mas detallada sobre esto. Rolo debe saber un poco mas de esto tambien.

La Cigua de la pícua.... The only downside of spearing a pícua is attracting sharks fast :shark4:

trust me any fish can get the ciguatera. for instance i got it from a hogfish, yeah , a small hogfish, it was like 13 inches long. and i know groupers get it too, specially black and tiger. cubera is very well known for it too. Oh and amberjack .

Quote from Adrian

Marco, una cosa que no creo que nadie ha mencionado. Una vez que obtines ciguatera la persona queda mucho mas propensa a intoxicaciones. Si ya has estado "enciguatado" yo te recomiendo que ignores a las barracudas y te enfoques en otros peces menos riesgosos. Creo que tiene que ver con el sistema inmunologico que queda debil despues de la intoxicacion. Se de un caso donde una barracuda fue consumida por una familia entera y el unico que fue afectado fue el hombre, nadie mas. El medico dijo que se debia a una ciguatera que el habia cogido previamente. Comparto lo que se, estoy seguro que en el internet debe haber mas informacion mas detallada sobre esto. Rolo debe saber un poco mas de esto tambien.

Adrian,

I don't believe the recurrence is due to damage to the immune system. Our internal defenses are pretty resilient and usually are much more adapt at fighting off foreign substances (usually bacteria or viruses) after an initial exposure. The likelihood of recurrence of symptoms is usually a result of an accumulation or reintroduction of more ciguatoxin. Remember, this is a toxin, much like if we were to consume toxic amount of mercury. Symptoms will appear as long as our body's levels are beyond a threshold to cause toxicity. Ciguatoxin can stay in the body for a long period of time. It may depend on the amount consumed or in our ability to process it and eliminate it from the body. There really is no treatment other than supportive therapy to treat the symptoms. Mannitol, which is a diuretic, seems to work best and likely as a result in helping the kidney's flush some of the toxin out.

I would deduce that one would require a healthy hepatic and renal function to help eliminate the toxin as quickly as possible. This toxin appears to be lipid soluble and thus difficult for the body to extract because it tends to imbed itself into our cellular membrane, which are a series of phospholipids (fatty acids). A substance requires an electrical charge to be excreated easily and ciguatoxin does not easily obtain polarity.

So back to the point, I think it was not the person's immune system that was damaged. It was likely he had already a certain level of toxin in his system and reintroduction increased the levels and became symptomatic.

At least that's my take.

pretty impressive explanation Rolo,

More impressive is the human body and its capabilities.

One of life's biggest mysteries, but maybe it was all created by matter, chance, or

perhaps " the big bang theory":rolleyes1: