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Old 11/26/2004, 06:54 PM
Gonodactylus Gonodactylus is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Berkeley, CA, USA
Posts: 2,845
Let me comment on these four points.

1) True, you can buy them in the use. Many suppliers have decided not to import them, buy several still do. There are no regulations regarding the import or selling of blue-rings in the US.

2) I don't know where this figure came from. The number of confirmed deaths is closer to 5 or 6. The location of the bite as well as the amount of TTX that gets into the person determins the severity of the bite. Death can be as fast as a few mintues or take several hours. Since death is caused by suffocation. support measures will also effect this.

3) H. lunulata, the only species being imported and sold in the US is under a year.

4) Most Hapalochlaena don't ink. In fact, it used to be diagnostic of the genus that they has reduced ink sacs. H. lunulata will produce a small amount of ink and an undescribed species I have been studying produces lots of ink. We don't know how toxic the ink is.