2006-12-12 01:34:40 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
No, you are right about them deriving oxygen from water, but air isn't pure oxygen. Air is actually mostly nitrogen gas, followed by oxygen and carbon dioxide.
When we breath air, we take air into our lungs, but our lungs only use the oxygen. The same is true with fish only letting oxygen in through the gills.
Not to mention I don't think i would call what a fish does "breathing" because it doesn't have lungs.
2006-12-12 01:41:16 · answer #1 · answered by George B 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
There are no fish that can live by breathing air exclusively, but there are numerous fish species that can't get enough oxygen from water, so they gulp air and must have air to survive - the lungfish is an example. There are also fish species that live out of water for hours at a time by breathing air such as the walking catfish. The northern snakehead that can live for days out of water and it can travel long distances over land.
2006-12-12 08:31:57 · answer #2 · answered by formerly_bob 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I have studied blood oxygenation. If you look at it at that level, fish blood and all red-blooded creatures carry out energy transfer by grabbing oxygen and converting it to CO2. Fishies have an oxygen transfer system (gills) that ONLY work in water. As said in other answers, oxygen and nitrogen dissolve in sea or lake water in very small percentages. The gills have a membrane which allow CO2 and O2 to transfer across to and from the blood. If a fish is exposed to only air, the gill is not designed to work with the air in the gas phase. It is an issue of surface area. We have to pass nitrox (oxygen 20-25% and nitrogen 80-75%) over a large surface area in our lungs to be land breathers. OUR membranes don't allow for dissolved oxygen in water to allow us to survive. They have experimented with liquid silicones which allow us to breathe like fishies, but there are side effects. NOt a good thing.
Breathing, if purely defined by intake and release of gases in the gaseous phase, then fish don't. If you mean they intake and release CO2 and O2, then they DO.
2006-12-12 01:48:35 · answer #3 · answered by DellXPSBuyer 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fishes cannot breath in open air because they breath only dissolved Oxygen
in water.
2006-12-12 01:44:14 · answer #4 · answered by ravi ranjan s 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, they use the oxygen dissolved in the water, by taking water into their mouths n passing it out through their gills...during this process, they absorb the dissolved oxygen into their bloodstream
2006-12-12 01:38:20 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes. tho it has to come from water- lesser CO2 and nitrogen.
They cannot breathe in open air because their gulls are designed to extract Oxygen from dissolved air/O2 in water only. They choke on open air.
2006-12-12 02:16:18 · answer #6 · answered by kapilbansalagra 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yes, in water.
2006-12-12 01:43:07 · answer #7 · answered by miatalise12560 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋