The United States Geological Survey estimates that around 71% of the planet’s surface is comprised of water. According to estimates provided by the World Atlas, there are around 3.5 trillion living fish in the ocean, with approximately 18,000 distinct species.
The consumption of water is a necessary component of daily existence. The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report that the typical adult in the United States consumes approximately 44 ounces of water on a daily basis. According to the USGS, the human body itself is around 60 percent water.
Both fish and humans, in their own unique ways, yet also in very similar ways, rely heavily on water throughout their lives. Butdo fish drink water just like humans?
Do fish take in water to drink?
Fish do drink water and are dependent on it for survival, just like people are. However, fish do not always consume it in the same manner that a human would consume a glass of water.
Osmosis is the technique that allows fish to take in water for consumption. Osmosis is defined by Merriam-Webster as the “movement of a solvent (such as water) through a semipermeable membrane (as of a living cell) into a solution of higher solute concentration that tends to equalise the concentrations of solute on the two sides of the membrane.” This movement tends to equalise the concentrations of solute on both sides of the membrane.
Osmosis, to put it in more layman’s terms, is the process of something passing through a thin sheet in order to change and balance a material in another object. Osmosis, the process by which fish take in water through their gills in order to breathe, is essentially the same thing for them as drinking water.
Osmosis: Is that the only way that fish get their water?
Osmosis isn’t the only way that fish get their intake of water, either. According to research conducted at McGill University, not only do fish in saltwater environments take in water by the process of osmosis, but they also actively drink water in order to force some of it through their digestive systems. Water does, in fact, make its way into the mouths of freshwater fish; however, rather of being swallowed, the water is instead filtered out through the fish’s gills.
Why don’t fish that live in freshwater swallow water from the freshwater source?
Freshwater fish, in contrast to their saltwater counterparts, do not need to take in water through their mouths in order to stay alive.
According to research conducted by McGill University, the blood and other body fluids of freshwater fish have a higher concentration of salt than the water in which the fish swim. According to McGill University, “the bodies of fishes, just like ours, need a certain concentration of salt to function at their optimal level.” Ingestion of freshwater may cause an internal imbalance in the body of a fish that lives in freshwater.
Why do fish that live in salt water ingest salt water?
The reason that freshwater fish eject water is the opposite of the reason that saltwater fish swallow it. According to McGill, saltwater fish have to consume saltwater in order to have sufficient levels of it in their bodies.
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