bulb 18 on the reagent cap 16 is pressed pressurizing the liquid intake and breaking seal 22 so that a measured quantity of solvent 26 such as but not limited to methanol d4 flows up the delivery tube 24 into the main chamber 2 and into contact with the fish tissue d the dart 1 is first shaken to mix the contents and is then left lying with the long dimension horizontal for a period of time so that the solvent 26 can leach toxin from the tissue e the dart 1 is stood vertically on a flat surface so that the solvent 26 can percolate through a filtering medium such as glass wool 6 filtering out large particles of tissue and down into the sealed assay tube 8 f the protective cap 11 is removed exposing the thin walled assay tube 8 spectroscopic analysis can then be performed on the contents of the exposed assay tube 8 the steps to perform a test for ciguatoxins are not however limited to the above preferred steps the basic elements of a detection system for fluorescence spectral analysis for ciguatoxin preferably include a laser power blue line to illuminate the samples a spectrometer a ccd charged coupled device detector which may be attached to a simple electronic device that triggers a visible or audible signal if toxic fish tissue is detected in a preferred embodiment an approximately 30 mw laser power blue line at 488 nm a spex 0 34 m spectrometer and a thermoelectrically cooled icd are used fluorescence spectroscopy is used effectively to screen large quantities of fish for ciguatoxins while raman spectral analysis and sers is used to confirm the presence of as well as to quantify ciguatoxins in suspect fish both techniques may.