What we were always told, mind you this is in the '60's when I was a lad, was the larger fish, 5 lbs. and up, were laden with ciguatera but you could always eat the smaller ones. This was because they ate a lot of the parrotfish which thrived on coral which is where the ciguatera comes from. We just threw them all back. A few years ago I had one grilled and would love to fish for them again.

^the deal is that the toxin is originated in microorganisms that adhere to coral, vegetation, etc on the coral reefs.

Small herbivorous fish ingest the ****.

Carnivorous fish eat these fish.....and so on/so forth.

It is a cumulative toxin in so much as it builds within the systems of the predators........so the older they get, the greater a concentration of toxin is possible/probable.

So.......the toxin is pretty much exclusive to fish which feed on the reefs. Pelagic species like dolphin, tuna, etc are not affected.

It is also reasonable to assume that fish caught in deep water are less likely to have the poison in them.

Barracuda seem to bear the brunt of ciguatera stigmata........I rarely hear of anyone throwing back a grouper or snapper for this reason.

I love fresh fish........and I really want to eat a barracuda.....so I might invest in a test kit, OR I could just see if flies land on the fish or not.

By "larger fish" I was referring to larger cuda. I've eaten lots of huge saltwater fish that were fine, just no huge cuda. Like you said, it's the diet of fish like the cuda which eat fish like the parrotfish.

...also, if I caught a smallish cuda today, he'd go home to the grill with me for sure.

^That's what I'm saying too.

I've thrown quite a few back into the water........and I wish I would have eaten them.

I studied up on the "test kits" as well.

From what I can gather, the test result is the analog interpretation of a colored strip. The more "blue" the strip is, the more ciguatera toxin is in the fish.

People who use them claim that every test they ever performed resulted in "some blue-ness"........therefore suggesting that "some" toxin was present; although some people also tried it on pelagic species with similar results.

It came down to how much blue is "too much blue".

Of course, the manufacturer claimed that humans can store the toxin and be unaffected until a certain level had accumulated.....so all blue should be avoided (therefore covering their asses).

All of this tells me that maybe the test is horse ****.........but it DOES sell for $30/3pack.

I've hovered in the water quite a few times with thousands and thousands of these lovelies circling in all directions. So pretty.

I hovered in the middle of a chum slick with ONE of these beauties........it was unnerving.

I had one swim right up to within touching distance of my face mask, about a four footer. It made me a little nervous just because they have to swim with their mouths open and that's a bit intimidating but I know these fish are much more often curious than dangerous. Doesn't mean they WON'T bite, just means they probably won't.

Still, pretty fun just staring down the gullet of that guy. He just hung out about 30 seconds checking me out and swam away. Pretty cool. Do you know how long 30 seconds is?

^yeah...........I've been in the water with them several times in the past and was cool with it.

It's just that the last time, I literally WAS in the middle of a chum slick.

We were chumming and tossing baits to little reef fish (kids were catching them).

I thought it would be fun to jump in the water (with my shiny silver underwater camera hanging on my neck)and take some photos of fish striking the baits, being reeled in, etc.

A big cuda was also interested in these things and wasn't particularly phased when I joined him on the reef.

So I got the f&ck out of the water.

Remember that time that fish followed you around thinking you were a whale shark? You stuck it to your nutsack and we had to take you to the doctor? Those were good times, man.

^ At the time I though I was in love with that little sucker.