Blood respiratory parameters in three species of cultivated fish

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.