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Are there adaptations in tropical fish to compensate for less oxygen in water?

Biology Asked on August 1, 2021

Warmer water means that the amount of gases- especially oxygen- dissolved in it reduces, since solubility of gases in a solution in most cases decrease with an increase in temperature.

I’m interested in knowing if tropical fish have any adaptations to account for this reduced oxygen compared to fish in colder waters. Any modification of the gills maybe?

Referencing the below articles, I have come to the conclusion that tropical fish end up migrating to shallower waters or cooler habitats due to the oxygen depletion, showing that this decrease in oxygen is serious enough to affect them. However, this may be due to excessive heating of oceans due to global warming. I’m curious about whether fish in tropical regions have any adaptations for living in ocean water that is heated purely by natural means, not anthropogenic ones.


References:

https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/temperature-affects-dissolved-oxygen-concentrations
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/wq-iw3-24.pdf
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150604162455.htm
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/150313-oceans-marine-life-climate-change-acidification-oxygen-fish

2 Answers

Fish that live in cold water for most of the year actually have particularly strong hypoxia-tolerance adaptations, i.e. from summer heatwaves and algal blooms, compared to fish that are better oxygenated by waves and flowing rivers.

Goldfish and other fish are able to rapidly change the surface area of their gills in less than a day. enter image description here

Carp, killifish, goldfish and oscars have 2/3 times as much glycogen in their bodies than river fish i.e. rainbow trout.

There's a lot of research into the biochemistry of fish's oxygen response, i.e. gene expression changes, things like decreased expression of genes involved in the citric acid cycle.

Probably you will find most of the information on the wiki page, there are also summaries of current advances in the field.

On coral reefs, oxygen is a limiting currency for all the fish and zooplankton. The reading suggests to me that hypoxia adaptations depend mostly on heatwave events and low current waters vs rivers and coastal waves than by tropical vs pelagic and temperate regions.

Correct answer by DeltaEnfieldWaid on August 1, 2021

Many can breath air directly ; examples - bettas, gouramis, paradise , some catfish . No doubt others that do not come to mind .

Answered by blacksmith37 on August 1, 2021

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