I'm not trolling I'm just asking questions
Why do they absorb the salt? Are you talking physically through the skin? What makes snakeheads,walking cats, and gar so special then? Besides the fact bichirs only need tropical temps. In nature are the bichirs "area" connected to an ocean? Or are they pretty far from it?
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Okay, a basic explanation of osmosis:
Because of osmosis, water is drawn from areas of low salt concentration to areas of high salt concentration. With saltwater fish, the concentration of salt in their external environment is higher than that within their bodies, so the water is constantly drawn out of them. To compensate, they constantly drink water, which creates an equilibrium. With freshwater fish, the concentration of salt within their bodies is higher than that of their external environment, so they are constantly absorbing water. To create their equilibrium, they have to urinate constantly. If you put a freshwater fish in saltwater, it will have a lower salt concentration in its body than in its external environment, so it will be losing water the same way a saltwater fish will, but it will continue to urinate rather than drinking the water as the saltwater fish do, so it will dehydrate and die.
Certain freshwater fishes, like salmon, bull sharks, scats, monos, etc. are able to adapt to environments of different salinities (although until this thread, I've never heard of Chana, Clarias, or gars being in this category), but most cannot, and it has nothing to do with their hardiness in other situations.
Edit: just noticed what I said in the last sentence of my previous post; that was incorrect, I'm not sure what I was thinking there.
