A comparative study to calculate the gill respiratory surface area of Luciobarbus xanthopterus (Heckel, 1843), Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758), and Arabibarbus grypus (Heckel,1843) a local bony fish in Karbala governorate

Abstract

The general activity of the fish is directly affected by the gills surface respiratory area. This study aims to calculate the components of the respiratory surface area of the gills and the extent of the influence of each component on it in three species of local bony fish that all belong to the family of Cyprinidae, and these species are: Luciobarbus xanthopterus (Heckel, 1843), Cyprinus carpio (Linnaeus, 1758), and Arabibarbus grypus (Heckel,1843).Fifty specimens of each fish species were collected from the three species from the Al-Hindiya River (Euphrates River) in Karbala Governorate - Iraq in September 2020 using gill nets of different sizes. The current study conducted as comparative between these three fish species by calculating the absolute and relative total respiratory gill surface area values and its correlation with their locomotor activity. The results of the absolute respiratory gill area (mm 2) showed existence of a direct effect of the total length of the gill filaments (L), which is one of the components of the absolute respiratory gill area on the values of the absolute respiratory area rates, and the relationship between the total length of the gill filaments and the length of the body was a positive relationship with correlation values (r) positive and significant whose values range between (0.8848, 0.9949, 0.9583) for L.xanthopterus and C.carpio and A.grypus respectively. While the length of the body showed an negative relationship with the relative respiratory gill area, and the (r) values were negative, ranging between (-0.9303, -0.9877,- 0.9666) in the L.xanthopterus and C.carpio and A.grypus respectively, And on it the fish of the current study were considered among the level of intermediate fish, depending on the rates of the total length of the gill filaments by comparing them with the values of the total length of the gill lines in other fish by other researchers.