Journal of Environmental Biology

Oxygen uptake in relation to group size in the juveniles of a climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch)

 

D. N. Pandit*¹ and T. K. Ghosh²

¹Department of Zoology, V. K. S. University, Arrah-802 301, India

²Ichthyology Research Laboratory, Department of Zoology, Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur-812 007, India

(Received: October 22, 2004 ; Revised received: July 20, 2005 ; Accepted: August 18, 2005)

Abstract: The present work reports oxygen uptake in relation to group size in the juveniles (body weight : 0.70 to 1.30 g) of a climbing perch, Anabas testudineus (Bloch). The experiments were conducted at 21.5 ? 1.0⁰C using a cylindrical glass respirometer having continuous water flow system. With an increase in the number of fish at an interval of 5 from 5 to 40 in each fourth subsequent experiment, the weight specific aquatic oxygen uptake of a fish decreased from 0.192? 0.030 to 0.800? 0.006 ml O_2.g^-1.h^-1. When compared with a controlled fish, there was a reduction of 27.80% in the oxygen uptake in a group of 5 but 58.39% in a group of 40. A negative and significant correlation (r=0.8411, p<0.01) was calculated between oxygen uptake and group size of fishes. The investigation showed that probably due to shoaling behaviour, the aquatic oxygen uptake in the juveniles of? A. testudineus always remained high in controlled fish or a fish in isolation than when they were in a group

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