تقدير المساحة التنفسية لغلاصم أسماك أبو الحكم Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch,1797)

Abstract

The present study deals with gills surface area of one species of Teleost, Abu Hakam , Heteropneustes fossilis (Bloch/1797) which belong to staining catfish family, Heteropneustidae.In present study used different length and weight groups fromH. fossilis. It's range (70-230 mm and 2.23-42.15 gm). They are collected from Al-Meshib region (one of the southern parts of Al-Hammar Marsh) in north of Basrah city, by used gill nets. The study of gill area (mm2/gm) shows that the fish length groups differ in gill area (mm2/gm). The lower length groups have large gill surface area (329mm2/gm) whereas the higher length groups have lower gill surface area (61.89 mm2/gm), due to the increasing value of the total length of the gill filaments (L). The fish of the present study is placed in the category of sluggish activity species that have relatively small gill area.