Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The shared trait of breathing via gills in bony fish and cartilaginous fish is a famous example of symplesiomorphy. Bony fish are more closely related to terrestrial vertebrates, which evolved out of a clade of bony fishes that breathe through their skin or lungs, than they are to the sharks, rays, and the other cartilaginous fish. Their kind ...
In some fish, capillary blood flows in the opposite direction to the water, causing countercurrent exchange. The muscles on the sides of the pharynx push the oxygen-depleted water out the gill openings. In bony fish, the pumping of oxygen-poor water is aided by a bone that surrounds the gills called the operculum. [6]
Osteichthyes (/ ˌ ɒ s t iː ˈ ɪ k θ iː z / ost-ee-IK-theez), [2] also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue.
The gill arches of bony fish typically have no septum, so the gills alone project from the arch, supported by individual gill rays. Some species retain gill rakers. Though all but the most primitive bony fish lack spiracles, the pseudobranch associated with them often remains, being located at the base of the operculum.
Many bony fishes have an internal organ called a swim bladder, or gas bladder, that adjusts their buoyancy through manipulation of gases. In this way, fish can stay at the current water depth, or ascend or descend without having to waste energy in swimming. The bladder is only found in bony fishes.
These fish are best kept with live or frozen feed and they easily outgrow the tank within eight to ten months. An aquarium with the minimum diameter of 6 by 3.5 feet (1.8 by 1.1 m) and 300 US gallons (1,100 L; 250 imp gal) is suggested as a bare minimum but 400–800 US gallons (1,500–3,000 L; 330–670 imp gal) is the best way to go. [ 9 ]
Branchial arches or gill arches are a series of paired bony/cartilaginous "loops" behind the throat (pharyngeal cavity) of fish, which support the fish gills. As chordates, all vertebrate embryos develop pharyngeal arches, though the eventual fate of these arches varies between taxa.
Bony fish have similar gill opercula, but the basalmost ray-finned fish, bichirs, use their spiracles for inhaling air into their lungs; this leads to speculation this may be the original air breathing mechanism ancestral to all bony fish and tetrapods. [9]