# Don't Eat the Gar Eggs!



## olsteve (Jul 20, 2008)

Here is an interesting link
www.macon.com/2010/04/21/1102401/ark-family-learns-hard-way-gar.html 
I probably would have tried them. Glad I didn't. 
I tried catfish eggs once, won't try that again!


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## essayons75 (May 15, 2006)

I never made is past the Macy's panty add on top of that website. :ac550:


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

Sure did not know that! I never liked caviar. Thought it tasted like salty fish eggs.


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## PasadenaMan (Dec 5, 2007)

my Friend eats KIngfish eggs


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Sunbeam said:


> Sure did not know that! I never liked caviar. Thought it tasted like salty fish eggs.


ha ha ha ha ha!

I thought this was the same thing that caused gar eggs to be toxic.

http://www.usadiveclub.com/html/ciguatera.html


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

*Ichthyosarcotoxin *
*Bet you can't say that three times, (or once)*


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## poohbear (Jul 31, 2009)

*Catfish Eggs*

When I was a kid, My dad would clean the catfish and take the eggs and fry them. It wasn't that great but he liked them. One of the memorys you will never forget.


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## Sniper John (Dec 11, 2006)

Bowfin eggs are popular and perhaps a small commercial fishery in Louisiana. Probably eaten by that family before and they just assumed the gar eggs would be no different. Fish eggs are not for me.


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## boom! (Jul 10, 2004)

Ichthyosarcotoxin 
Ichthyosarcotoxin 
Ichthyosarcotoxin


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## seattleman1969 (Jul 17, 2008)

Ken Ostrand, lead author of the second paper cited below. He confirmed what I suspected, that the toxin has yet to be identified. He said it is a protein of some kind, and speculated it may even be an algicide or fungicide. He also said it may just be an old wives' tale, which many people have suggested. Adding to the mix is the fact that of 
the few studies that have focused on the subject (most of which offer just anecdotal reports), none describe the eggs as being toxic to other fishes. From an evolutionary perspective, this is significant, since fishes would be the most likely predators on gar eggs (not chickens, as some studies have used, and certainly not humans). In other words, why 
would egg toxicity evolve if it offered no protection against the most likely predators? So it may just be chance that the eggs cause sickness in birds and mammals. Or, as Ostrand suggested, converting the eggs to pellet form to feed to chickens, or even force-feeding raw eggs to mice, might involve changes in the biochemistry of the eggs which could cause an unnatural response. Burns, T.A., D.T. Stalling, and W. Goodger. 1981. Gar ichthyootoxin - its effect on crayfish, with notes on bluegill sunfish. The Southwestern 
Naturalist 25(4):513-515.
Ostrand, K.G., M. Thies, D.D. Hall, and M. Carpenter. 1996. Gar 
ichthyootoxin: its effects on natural predators and the toxin's 
evolutionary function. Southwestern Nat., 41:375-377.


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