Morphometries of the respiratory organs of the Indian green snake‐headed fish, Channa punctata

Abstract

Measurements of the dimensions of the different gills and the suprabranchial chambers have been made and the data analysed with respect to body weight using logarithmic transformations (Y = aWb). The slope (b) for area of the total gill surface is 0–592 and for the supra‐branchial chamber 0–696, and their combined respiratory surface: 0–623. The slope values for the surface areas of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the 4th gill arches were 0–595,0–578,0–614 and 0–572 respectively. The slope for secondary lamellae/mm is –0138 and that for the bilateral surface area of an average‐sized lamella 0–304. These results indicate differences in growth patterns for the dimensions of the different gills. The growth‐related decrease in the number of secondary lamellae/mm and size of an average secondary lamella together with evidence from “drowning” experiments and diffusing capacity calculation, suggest that this fish is better adapted for aquatic respiration than Anabas or Saccobranchus. The slopes for the total respiratory surface area and gill area seem to be comparatively low in this species.

Oxygen uptake through gills and skin in relation to body weight of an air‐breathing siluroid fish, Saccobranchus (=Heteropneustes) fossilis

“…They reported that oxygen uptake by the gills in relation to body size increased by a power of 0.67 when the fish had free access to air. Under similar experimental conditions, Channa punctatus showed an exponent value of 0.79 (Hakim, Munshi & Hughes, 1978). The difference in relationship which might exist between 0, consumption and body weight in juvenile and adult fishes (Kamler, 1972) has not, however, been determined in these air breathing fishes.…”

“…Further, Munshi & Dube (1973) have reported the lowering of the exponent value (b = 0.53) in Anabas and Hakim et al (1978) in Channa punctatus (b = 0.62) when the fishes were not allowed to breathe atmospheric air and forced to take oxygen from water. Under similar experimental conditions, S. fossilis also showed lowering of the regression line.…”

Ecological lifestyles and the scaling of shark gill surface area

“…For example, the Blackfin icefish Chaenocephalus aceratus (a hemoglobin‐lacking species) has a high gill surface area allometric slope of 1.09, which is thought to reflect the need for a disproportionately large respiratory surface area to help mitigate the effects of a greatly reduced blood‐oxygen carrying capacity, which becomes increasingly problematic with growth (Holeton, ; Nilsson, ). On the other end of the spectrum, low gill surface area allometric slope values of less than 0.33 have been observed in some air‐breathing fishes that reflect their increased capacity for breathing air and thus reduced reliance on the gills for oxygen uptake as they grow (Hakim, Munshi, & Hughes, ; Santos, Fernandes, & Severi, ; Perna & Fernandes, ). Thus, while the narrow bounds of the gill surface area allometric slope that we found in this study as well as those seen in other studies are likely explained by the relationship between gill surface area and metabolic rate, there are clear exceptions.…”

Stereological estimation of the surface area and oxygen diffusing capacity of the respiratory stomach of the air‐breathing armored catfish Pterygoplichthys anisitsi (Teleostei: Loricariidae)

“…The D morphol is usually much higher than the estimated D physiol , which approximates the D morphol only during extreme exercise or in combination with hypoxia and/or hypercapnia (Scotto et al, 1987;Weibel, 1999). The D morphol of the stomach of P. anisitsi showed a structural and functional simi- (Hughes et al, 1974a) Air sac 310 1.605 0.0288 Monopterus cuchia (Hughes et al, 1974b) Air sac 48 0.44 0.0165 Channa punctatus (Hakin et al, 1978) SBC 392 0.780 0.0753 Channa striatus (Munshi, 1985) SBC 231 1.359 0.0254 Channa gachua (Munshi, 1985 (Maina and Maloiy, 1985) Lungs 14000 0.37 13.035 Lepidosiren paradoxa (Hughes and Weibel, 1976) Lungs 850 0.86 0.3 Lepidosiren paradoxa (Moraes et al, 2005) Lungs 664 1.38 0.110 larity in the characteristics of respiratory tissues specialized in using atmospheric air for gas exchange (very thin diffusion barrier), and a pattern for ectothermic animals which present low activity (low respiratory surface area).…”

“…The 1.5 times higher Ŝ v of stomach of small fish and the decreasing specific surface area with increasing body mass suggest that small animals would be capable of obtaining greater specific oxygen uptake from atmospheric air than larger specimens. The arithmetic (s arith ) and harmonic (s h ) mean of the thickness of the air-blood diffusion barrier of Pterygoplichthys anisitsi stomach lies in the range of most air-breathing organs of fish such as the arborescent organ of Clarias batrachus (Munshi, 1985), the air sac of Heteropneustes fossilis (Hughes et al, 1974a) and Monopterus cuchia (Munshi et al, 1989), the suprabranchial chambers of Channa punctatus (Hakin et al, 1978), C. striatus and C. gachua (Munshi, 1985), the swim bladder of Pangasius hypophthalmus (Podkowa and Goniakowska-Witalinska, 1998), and the stomach of Hypostumus plecostomus (Podkowa and Goniakowska-Witalinska, 2003), and is lower than the lung of the South American lungfish, Lepidosiren paradoxa (Hughes and Weibel, 1976;Moraes et al, 2005) (Table 4). The low values of the diffusion barrier of respiratory organs evidence the preservation of the barrier model in different groups of animals that breathe air to allow for an efficient gas exchange process, as emphasized by Maina and West (2005).…”