HONG KONG, Mar 12 (AP) -- A man died and 10 others got ill in southern China after eating mudskippers, called "tiao yu" or "jumping fish" in Chinese, believed to be carrying toxins that cause ciguatera -- severe fish poisoning, media reported Monday.

The fatal case was a 56-year-old man who ate the mudskippers -- which resemble tadpoles -- for dinner with his wife and son in Dajing village in Guangdong province, Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po daily said, quoting the wife.

The family became sick two hours after their supper on Feb. 8 with dizziness and numb limbs, the report said. The father died later in the evening.

An unidentified county health official was quoted by the paper as saying the 11 cases were suspected of being poisoned by mudskippers tainted with ciguatoxin -- a biotoxin found in microscopic aquatic plants.

Mudskippers are found in coastal or tropical regions of Asia and Africa. They have strong pectoral fins used as legs to climb over mudflats.