Abstract:
The study was oarried out on three species of fish which are commercially
important and presently cultivated in Sri Lanka. These are Oreochromis
mossambicus, Oreochromis niloticus and Chanos chanos. Blood parameters
measured in the resting state for the three species were haematocrit, erythrocyte
counts and haemoglobin concentrations. From these findings the following
were calculated. The Hb content per single erythrocyte, the Hb concentration
per single erythrocyte and volume of a single erythrocyte. It was
found that all these values were higher in the Oreochromis species compared
to Chanos. Inverse relationships between erythrocyte count and volume of
a single erythrocyte and between cell count and Hb content per single erythrocyte
were observed. O2 capacities and O2 dissociation curves were also deter
mined. The effect of pH on 0. affinity was also studied. In vivo experiments
were conducted to measure rates of 02 consumption in the resting state of fish.
