Fish can drown both on land and water!!!
Organisms like animals, humans, insects, and fishes need life things to survive like water, oxygen soil, etc.
Some researchers showed that fishes don’t drown in water because they have special respiratory structures to absorb and extract water and live in an aquatic environment.
Humans and animals get oxygen from their respiratory parts like lungs and extract from it, while fishes can inhale, and exhale oxygen dissolved in the seawater. But many other fishes get oxygen for their lives in different ways.
Suffocation or near to death for fish:
Let’s talk about drowning where fishes do not get oxygen in the water. they will suffocate below or under the water surface and in extreme conditions they will die.
If organisms have a high capacity to live, then they must extract and gasp oxygen in a high amount. fishes can survive if they can exhale water from the gills and inhale oxygen in it.
In a few seconds, water can get out from the gills over the bloodstream, and carbon dioxide is expelled. This procedure is necessary to survive in an aquatic habitat for the fishes and other aquatic species.
If you saw the fish get out their heads and open their mouths often, then you will understand that the fish can suffocate in the water and want to breathe in the fresh air on land.
Slow suffocation is more dangerous, and it is a very unpleasant way to die. Fish can open their mouths from time to time to gasp air.
Fish can also drown:
Fish can also “drown” in water.
It is not incorrect to say that fish can also drown because they do not absorb oxygen and extract water from the lungs like humans do.
Or it is more correct to say that fish can suffocate in the water, especially under the deep water, but it is a regular thing. Fish can also suffocate due to the small amount of oxygen in the freshwater of the sea or river.
When we talk about mammals’ lungs, they can`t get oxygen from the surface when they are in the water. So, they can’t stay in water longer.
Symptoms due to lack of oxygen:
The several conditions that can cause oxygen depletion are “temperature, weather conditions, pollution, the population in the same habitat, climate change, and dehydration. ” The lack of oxygen which fish cannot absorb oxygen in and cannot exhale water is called “hypoxia”.
Fish cannot survive in extreme water. In hot temperatures (Between about 28°F and 109°F), fish can survive.it is the optimal temperature for the fish, but this can be changed due to the varieties of the fish.
Warmer temperatures can reduce the oxygen-carrying capacity that needs the fish in the water, which causes the fish’s death.
Fish can also not survive the pollution, because this pollution can damage the water environment and cause many fungal and bacterial diseases, which can cause the death of the fish.
The main factor that can cause the reduction of air in water is “eutrophication”. This process contains a large amount of nutrients in the water bodies.
This can have increased the number of algae. when these bacteria or algae contain ‘DEAD ZONES”, this can lead to the depletion of oxygen and ultimately the death of the fish.
Fish have 2 ways of breathing:
Fishes can breathe through different parts of their body; some can use their mouths to get oxygen into their body, and others can use their intestines to get it.
The species which can use these organs to get oxygen into their body are salmonids, eels, and goldfish.
Salmonids, which are salmon or trout, have specialised structures to breathe in water known as gills. They are located on either side of their head. As the water passes over their gills, the air diffuses in their bloodstreams and the byproduct carbon dioxide is out.
Salmons can top up their body with oxygen to fill up their swim bladder to prevent them from drowning.
Eels can be able to live both on land and water. They have specialised gills with large amounts of surface to extract oxygen. When the water flows, oxygen diffuses, and byproducts are out. This mechanism helped it to survive on land for several days.
Fish can also have lungs to breathe:
Fish can also have lungs to get air. They are in the gut behind the gills. The species that use both parts of their body to breathe is “dipnoid”. They use their lungs when there is a shortage of oxygen in the water.
These species are mostly located in America, Canada, China, and Australia. But in Australia, these are the endangered species. We have felt the danger of their extinction.
American lungfish that are able to breathe through lungs, lived in the mud. They can burrow into the mud. They can breathe through their lungs due to drought.