DEEP fish
- Thread starter mrphuck
- Start date
if you can find one.
Good find SimonL. The article talks about the enzymes changing shape due to the pressure shift. I would suspect that this alone (not to mention blood flow, blood pressure, kidney function, etc...) would make it impossible to ever keep the fish in a 1 atmospheric pressure environment. The enzyme will not adapt itself, and it is highly unlikely that this fish will start suddenly producing enzymes that have the correct shape at 1 atm. So, I believe that the idea that it could adapt within its lifetime is unrealistic given that it would be the equivalent of taking a surface dwelling fish and trying to get it to adapt to the 10,000 foot depth environment.
As for the analogy of the chinchilla, there is a huge difference between the extent of necessary adaptions needed to survive the change. Solely looking at atms, at 12,000 ft above sea level the atmospheric pressure is 0.657 atm, and this is not even a change of 1/2 atm. The fish being discussed, on the other hand, are living in up to several hundred atm's. It really shows just how extreme those fish really are.
As for the analogy of the chinchilla, there is a huge difference between the extent of necessary adaptions needed to survive the change. Solely looking at atms, at 12,000 ft above sea level the atmospheric pressure is 0.657 atm, and this is not even a change of 1/2 atm. The fish being discussed, on the other hand, are living in up to several hundred atm's. It really shows just how extreme those fish really are.
It all depends on the species of fish being discussed.
There are indeed deep water fish that can be kept at 1atm. Hag fish is the best example I can think of, but there are probably others. There are many many inverts as well.
That National Geographic article was perfect. Nice post!
There are indeed deep water fish that can be kept at 1atm. Hag fish is the best example I can think of, but there are probably others. There are many many inverts as well.
That National Geographic article was perfect. Nice post!
Thank you for saving me from typing that. Just for comparison's sake...a person is also capable of surviving at the chincilla's altitude (albeit with supplementary oxygen). A person at 200 atmospheres of pressure will look like a cat you ran over with your car.
Then why, despite the best efforts of many scientists, hasn't it been done?
kdrun76;3540721; said:
The hag fish lives in waters up to 4,000 ft deep. Not that it isn't totally amazing that they are this flexible in their environment requirements, but the deepest fish are close to 5 miles deep. It's these extremes that I am referring to, but I'm not sure what the OP had in mind.
There was a cool program on National Gepgraphic channel about the coelacanth. They would never make it too long after they were brought to the surface. Interesting post.
