# Toxic fish
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxic-fish/328218
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 27, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxic-fish/328218 "2005-10-27T22:48:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxic-fish/328218/1 "2005-10-27T22:48:10Z")
[From here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=341757):
> [@LiveOnAPlane](#):
>
> When we lived on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, we were repeatedly warned about eating reef fish. Some of them could pick up ciguatera, which comes from ciguatoxins from the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus.
ISTR reading many years ago that in a survival situation on a ‘desert isle’ one should not eat colourful fish because they may be toxic to humans. Instead, the article said, eat fish that are silver-coloured.
But this is something I read a long, long time ago and I may not be remembering correctly. Can any marine biologists reading this shed some light on the issue?
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toxic-fish/328218/2 "2005-10-27T22:58:22Z")
Barracuda are silver-colored, and they are one of the fish associated with ciguatera poisoning.