Silver Bream, Acanthopagrus australis. Photo: Paul Macklin/www.projectaquatic.com
Since I am studying about dissolved oxygen I thought I might start talking generally about it in my posts. It’s a topic that most people would find a bit boring but I find it fascinating. Just for starters, these fish in the image I took yesterday need oxygen just like us. Everyone knows H2O is water but what it means is that there is one atom of hydrogen and two of oxygen. These oxygen atoms are always bonded to the hydrogen atom. So there are three atoms each taking up 33.3% of space. This ratio in the water never changes. But organisms including fish do not breathe this. What they breathe is the dissolved oxygen (DO) that diffuses by itself in the water, and is not bonded to H2O at all. I have to stop now!!! Hope you like the photo!
i agree, it’s a pretty interesting thing to explore! there’s other trace gases also in the 1% and below bracket making up the air we breathe but it is fascinating the various methods that sea creatures extract oxygen from water (while we have to rely on higher concentrations of nitrogen while trying to breather underwater!)
Thanks, and a good point too.
Chat soon,
Paul
I find it interesting, and see no reason for you stopping it!