Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Fish from multiple groups can live out of the water for extended time periods. Amphibious fish such as the mudskipper can live and move about on land for up to several days, or live in stagnant or otherwise oxygen depleted water. Many such fish can breathe air via a variety of mechanisms. The skin of anguillid eels may absorb oxygen directly.
The concentration of oxygen in water is lower than air and it diffuses more slowly. In a litre of freshwater the oxygen content is 8 cm 3 per litre compared to 210 in the same volume of air. [7] Water is 777 times more dense than air and is 100 times more viscous. [7] Oxygen has a diffusion rate in air 10,000 times greater than in water. [7]
A fish's hypoxia tolerance can be represented in different ways. A commonly used representation is the critical O 2 tension (P crit), which is the lowest water O 2 tension (P O 2) at which a fish can maintain a stable O 2 consumption rate (M O 2). [2]
Seawater contains more osmolytes than the fish's internal fluids, so marine fishes naturally lose water through their gills via osmosis. To regain the water, marine fishes drink large amounts of sea water while simultaneously expending energy to excrete salt through the Na + /K + -ATPase ionocytes (formerly known as mitochondrion-rich cells and ...
A fish (pl.: fish or fishes) is an aquatic, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fins and a hard skull, but lacking limbs with digits.Fish can be grouped into the more basal jawless fish and the more common jawed fish, the latter including all living cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as the extinct placoderms and acanthodians.
The anatomy of fish is often shaped by the physical characteristics of water, the medium in which fish live. Water is much denser than fish, holds a relatively small amount of dissolved oxygen, and absorbs more light than air does. The body of a fish is divided into a head, trunk and tail, although the divisions between the three are not always ...
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]
As a result, the oxygen-carrying capacity of their blood is reduced to less than 10% that of other fishes. [17] This trait likely arose due to the high oxygen solubility of the Southern Ocean waters. At cold temperatures, the oxygen solubility of water is enhanced. [ 18 ]