Premium
Swimbladder volume and body density in an armoured benthic fish, the streaked gurnard
Author(s) -
Davenport J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1999.tb00697.x
Subject(s) - biology , benthic zone , pelagic zone , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , neutral buoyancy , volume (thermodynamics) , zoology , quantum mechanics , physics
Body density of streaked gurnards Trigloporus lastoviza is anomalously low (mean 1·043 g ml −1 ) for a benthic fish and overlaps with that of pelagic fish such as cod and lumpfish. It is clear that the heavy armour of gurnards is offset by buoyancy provided by the swimbladder. Swimbladder volume is a mean 3·88% of gurnard volume. Evidence is given to indicate that this is quite large for a marine teleost: data are also presented to show that the ‘5% of fish volume for marine fish, 7% for freshwater fish’ rule for swimbladder volumes is unreliable.