Why do freshwater fish die in salt water?

Fish are aquatic vertebrate animals that breathe at through gills.These animals can be divided into three large groups: agnatos or fish without jaws, chondrites or cartilaginous and osteotic fish or fishes.All of them drink water from which they capture oxygen to be able to breathe, except for lungfish, that breathe air and there are only six species.

If fish take oxygen from water, why do some live in fresh water and others in salt water? and what would happen if a freshwater fish is placed in the sea?

In this Animals and Pets Online article we will talk about the breathing of the fish, analyzing how oxygen behaves according to the environment and why a freshwater fish cannot live in salt water.

The breath of the fish

Each group of fish has a different form of gills and a way of breathing.

Gills and breathing in lampreys and mixines (fish agnatos)

Mixinos: they have some bags or gill sacs in the upper part of the body.What is observed is that the water enters through the mouth, passes through the gill sacks, and leaves through the opening or gill openings, that are found on the side of the animal.
Lampreys: if they are not feeding, they breathe like the mixinos.In the case of feeding, being parasites they adhere to another fish, and in this case they have a Concurrent breathing, water enters and exits through the same hole in the gill openings.

Gills and ventilation in teleost fish (osteotic fish)

The oral cavity communicates with the outside both by the mouth and by the opercular cavity, this is where the gills are located.

They have four gill arches and each branq arch Two groups of gill filaments are going to come out and are arranged in a V-shape.These filaments overlap with those of the neighboring gill arcs and form a kind of sieve.

Each of the filaments goes to have perpendicular projections called secondary lamellae, this is where the respiratory exchange occurs, they have a fine epithelium and are very vascularized.The flow of water passes through the lamellae in one direction and the blood goes in another direction, it is where the gas exchange (oxygen enters and carbon dioxide comes out).

These fish have an oral pressure pump and an opercular suction pump, which means that on the one hand a pressure will be generated in the oral cavity that will push the water into the opercular cavity, and also in the opercular cavity, the pressure that sucks the water from the oral cavity drops so much.

Gills and ventilation in elasmobranchs (condrict fish)

Water enters through the mouth and through the spirals (nostrils on the sides of the head).They are very active fish, they swim with their mouths open, which causes a lot of water to enter at great pressure due to the speed and is caused by the entry into the opercular cavity , where the gas exchange occurs.Here the ventilation system is slightly different, since they do not have the two pumps.The cons of these is that they spend more energy than in the previous case and should always be in motion.

Why can't a freshwater fish live in salt water?

The first thing we should keep in mind is that all living beings seek to maintain homeostasis, which helps them maintain internal chemical balance.

Each animal is adapted to its environment So a saltwater fish needs the exact concentration of oxygen found in this water and the concentrations of fair salts.What if we put a marine fish in fresh water? Fresh water has a higher concentration of oxygen and a lower concentration of salts, which would modify its homeostasis causing an acidosis of the blood due to the increased production of carbon dioxide and the accumulation of salts, causing the death of the animal.fresh water is placed in the sea, the opposite would occur, the oxygen concentration is lower and that of salts is higher, so it could not maintain its vital functions.

Living beings that they can live in fresh and salt water

Despite all of the above, some fish, throughout their life, change from a salty medium to a sweet one, such as salmon or eel.These animals have developed mechanisms to maintain homeostasis of your body despite the changes.

The skin of these fish is very poorly permeable, to prevent water loss.When they pass from the sea to the river they increase urine production and decrease it when they go from the river to the sea.In addition, they drink water when they enter the sea and stop drinking in the river, to free or not to go out through the gills.

Do not miss this article about fish that breathe outside of water if you are more interested in this topic.

If you want to read more articles similar to Why do freshwater fish die in salt water? , we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the lively world l.

Bibliography

Berne, RM and Levy, MN (2000).Principles of Physiology.Cap.27.Mosby Inc., St.Louis.

Hill, RW, Wyse, GA and Anderson, M.(2004).Animal Physiology.Cap.21.Editorial Panamericana SA, Madrid

Moyes, CDy Schulte, PM (2006).Principles of Animal Physiology.Cap.10.Addison Wesley-Pearson, San Francisco.

Perez, JE (1979).Air and aquatic respiration in fish of the species Hoplosternum littorale.I: Blood parameters.; Aquatic and aereal respiration in the fish, Hoplosternum littorale.1: Blood parameters.Acta Cientifica Venezolana (Venezuela) 30 (3), 314-317.

Palzenberger, M.,&Amp; Pohla, H.( 1992).Gill surface area of water-breathing freshwater fish.Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 2 (3), 187-216.

Perez, JE (1980).Air and aquatic breathing in fish The species Hoplosthernum littorale.II.Affinity of its hemoglobins by oxygen.Venezuelan scientific act.

Perry, SF, Esbaugh, A., Braun, M.,&Gilmour, KM (2009).Gas transport and gill function in water-breathing fish.In Cardio-Respiratory Control in Vertebrates (pp.5-42).Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Thomas, RE,&Rice, SD (1979) The effect of exposure temperatures on oxygen consumption and opercular breathing rates of pink salmon fry exposed to toluene, naphthalene, and water-soluble fractions of Cook Inlet crude oil and No.2 fuel oil.Marine pollution: functional responses, 39-52.

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