Fish That Can Breathe In And Out Of Water

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Waltruda Monie

unread,
Jun 30, 2024, 9:49:27 AM (2 days ago) Jun 30
to alulanra

Like humans, fish need oxygen to survive, so how do fish breathe underwater? Oxygen helps release the energy that powers our bodies from the sugary chemical glucose in a process called respiration. Respiration releases another gas, carbon dioxide, which gorillas, humans, and fish, breathe out. Humans inhale oxygen from the air, through their mouths, down into their lungs to breathe easily. However, fish have it much harder.

To breathe, fish have to pull out molecules of oxygen dissolved in water using their gills, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The amount of oxygen in the air is a lot higher than the amount of oxygen in the water, though. That means that fish have a much more difficult time breathing than humans do. Fish take water into their mouths just like we take in air, opening and closing their lips.

This water then filters through the gills, organs that have lots of feathery filaments made of protein molecules. The filaments look like tiny bristles on a brush. They have thousands of tiny blood vessels to help oxygen get into the bloodstream, even more blood vessels than in human lungs. The larger number of blood vessels in fish gives a much larger surface for oxygen to pass across. That helps them pull the dissolved oxygen from the water, and release carbon dioxide back into the water.

Fish also use less energy to live than mammals like humans, so need less oxygen. They do need at least some oxygen though. That means that water with low oxygen levels is just as deadly for fish as low oxygen in the air can be for us. Anoxic and hypoxic zones, sometimes called dead zones, are bits of the ocean where oxygen is so scarce that fish cannot survive, according to NOAA.

Labyrinth fish are named after their lung-like labyrinth organs, which have many maze-like compartments, known as lamellae. Those labyrinth organs help fish species, including Betta, Gourami and Paradise fish, to breathe air, just like humans do. They also have gills, so they can breathe oxygen dissolved in the water too, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

For millions of years, these fish and their ancestors have lived in very low oxygen waters. Evolution has favored any fish that are born with advantages that help them make the most of the oxygen they can find. Today, if the water labyrinth fishes live in runs out of oxygen, they can dash up to the surface and use their labyrinth organs for a gulp of air.

For more information about fish biology, and diversity, check out "The Diversity of Fishes: Biology, Evolution, and Ecology, 2nd Edition" by Gene Helfman and "What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins" by Jonathan Balcombe.

Amphibious fish are fish that are able to leave water for extended periods of time. About 11 distantly related genera of fish are considered amphibious. This suggests that many fish genera independently evolved amphibious traits, a process known as convergent evolution. These fish use a range of methods for land movement, such as lateral undulation, tripod-like walking (using paired fins and tail), and jumping. Many of these methods of locomotion incorporate multiple combinations of pectoral-, pelvic-, and tail-fin movement.

Many ancient fish had lung-like organs, and a few, such as the lungfish and bichir, still do. Some of these ancient "lunged" fish were the ancestors of tetrapods. In most recent fish species, though, these organs evolved into the swim bladders, which help control buoyancy. Having no lung-like organs, modern amphibious fish and many fish in oxygen-poor water use other methods, such as their gills or their skin to breathe air. Amphibious fish may also have eyes adapted to allow them to see clearly in air, despite the refractive index differences between air and water.

Also known as the coral blenny, rockskipper is a species of long fish found in tropical and subtropical harbors and bays, as well as freshwater areas. They are so named for their behavior of skipping between limestone pools to feed on algae. As long as they remain moist, rockskippers can survive for hours outside water, even able to forage and mate while on land.

Being avid survivors, wooly sculpin are able to withstand drastic temperature changes. Remarkably, these amphibious fish can leave water and survive up to 24 hours on land to look for new homes if oxygen levels get too low in the water.

Return & Exchanges: You have 60 days from the date of invoice to return merchandise for full refund, then another 60 days (120 days in total) to return for exchange or store credit as long as you haven't used it. Original shipping charges are not refunded. See full terms & conditions.

Defective & Incorrect: If a product is received defective or incorrect, please contact us immediately and we will do whatever possible to resolve the issue.We will only cover return shipping if we are notified prior to return.

Return item as used: Did you already use the product but still want to return it? We allow many qualifying items to be returned even if used, up to 120 days of date of invoice for full credit. Refund is issued in form of store credit only. Items must be in as-new-condition and returned with all parts. Click here for more info.

they will be able to absorb oxygen. If the skin on the gills is thin, this also helps. The blood passing through the gills is pumped in the opposite direction of the water flowing over the gills. This allows the blood oxygen level to be less than the oxygen level in the water. Oxygen will always want to move to wherever lacks oxygen, this is also known as diffusion. The oxygen can then attach to hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that distributes oxygen throughout the body.

The lungs of mammals would not work very well for a fish, because one breath underwater would fill them with fluid and make them useless. Nonetheless, fish need oxygen to breathe, too. In order to remove oxygen from the water, they rely on special organs called "gills."

Gills are feathery organs full of blood vessels. A fish breathes by taking water into its mouth and forcing it out through the gill passages. As water passes over the thin walls of the gills, dissolved oxygen moves into the blood and travels to the fish's cells.

Dolphins and whales are similar to humans in many ways: They give birth to live babies instead of laying eggs, are warm-blooded and have lungs for breathing air. When a whale or dolphin surfaces, it breathes air through its nose (commonly called a "blowhole") on the top of its head.

Thanks for asking, Mir! We ask that Wonderopolis be listed as the author. Since we do not list the publish date for our Wonders of the Day, you may put the date you accessed this page for information. The following is how you would cite this page:

Sorry about that, James! We do have lots of Wonders for you to explore. Here are a few other fish Wonders that may interest you.Wonder #1033: What Fish Has the Largest Teeth? Wonder #1213: Do Fish Sleep with Their Eyes Open?Wonder #1131: What Is a Fish Tornado? We hope you enjoy them! :-)

Those are good questions, Emmanuel! We love WONDERing about things like that, and also about how long can people hold their breath under water! Can you guess? Check it out! -long-can-you-hold-your-breath-underwater/ :)

Berger shared a fun fact with me during our visit: Fish and other animals with gills are able to get oxygen to breathe because their blood flows through the gills in the opposite direction of water. If their blood flowed through the gills in the same direction as the water, the fish would not be able to get as much oxygen from it.

If humans would like to breath underwater like fish, they can use a snorkel to experience life like a fish. Most snorkels kits include a mask and a mouth piece. The mouth piece is attached to a tube that reaches above water. That way, humans can keep breathing air while their mouth and nose are under water.

It's funny, but the deeper we go into the world of natural, botanical-style aquariums and the associated arcane topics that go with them, the more and more we find that we need to be better acquainted with the "basics" of aquarium keeping. And the underlying theme that I keep going back to is how fishes are intimately tied to their environment. It's important to consider this when creating our aquariums- and equally important to grasp this idea when creating aquariums and managing them.

Lately, we've received a number of inquiries from customers wondering if it's necessary to use aeration in a botanical-style aquarium. And, interestingly, on first thought, I wanted to simply say, "Well, yeah- of course!" However, the idea of "aeration" takes on a number of associated topics...and the primary, overarching concept here is how oxygen gets to fishes...or more properly, how they extract oxygen from their aquatic environment.

Essentially what happens during gas exchange is that CO2 from the water is "swapped-out" for atmospheric oxygen. And, as a side note- the larger the surface area your aquarium has, the greater the opportunity for oxygen exchange there is.

Since fishes live in water, they need to pump water through their gills, an energy-consuming process which is aided by a vast network of filament-like structures called "lamellae", which are some efficient, that the fishes can extract the majority of the oxygen from the water which passes through them (like, almost 80% of it- that's pretty damn efficient, huh?). And yeah, Anabantoids have that extra advantage of the "Labrynith organ" to help them breath atmospheric oxygen as well, a big advantage in the stagnant pools of water they come from in Nature.

Now, that's all well and good; however, because fishes live in water (duh), the bulk of them are highly dependent upon how much oxygen is available in the environment in which they live. Of course, this varies because of many factors, like temperature, water depth, salt content (saltwater doesn't retain as much oxygen as fresh water, FYI), etc., so it's always a challenge (although the fishes likely don't think about it) to extract as much oxygen as possible from the water.

d3342ee215
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages