Seasonal and environmental effects on the blood hemoglobin concentrations of some Panamanian air-breathing fishes

Synopsis Interspecific differences in blood hemoglobin concentration (Hb]) occur among air breathing fishes. However, the effect on Hb] of factors such as air-breathing organ structure and blood circulation pattern, air breathing behavior, as well as season and environmental conditions have not been fully examined. Hb] in seven Panamanian species of air-breathing freshwater teleost fishes were compared and were monitored for most species during the wet and dry seasons and in hypoxic laboratory conditions. Fishes studied were Ancistrus, Hypostomus, and Loricaria (Family Loricariidae); Hoplosternum (Callichthyidae); Synbranchus (Synbranchidae); Piabucina (Lebiasinidae); and Dormitator (Eleotridae). Hb] in these species ranged from 4.8 to 14.6 g 100 ml^–1 (g%). Ancistrus, Hypostomus, and Dormitator significantly increased Hb] during the dry season and, with Piabucina, also increased Hb] when acclimated to hypoxia in the laboratory. An increase in Hb] during the dry season may precondition facultative air breathers for habitat hypoxia (and the need to respire aerially) in the event this occurs. Intraspecific differences in both Hb] and in red cell Hb-phosphate ratio, an index of oxygen affinity, were found in populations of Hypostomus and relate directly to differences in habitat oxygen level. In all species tested alterations in blood hematocrit (Hmct) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) occurred only with correspondingly large net changes in blood Hb]. The Hb] of Loricaria, Synbranchus, and Hoplosternum was not affected by season or hypoxia and this may be due to behavioral and physiological adaptations that reduce the transbranchial loss of aerially-obtained oxygen or to a ventilatory mode that precludes this possibility.