Gas Exchange in Fish

 Being relatively large fishes have a small surface area to volume ratio.

 Therefore they have specialised internal gas exchange surface : the gills.
Structure of the gills
 Gills are made up of gill filaments. They are stacked up in a pile as emphasised
on the picture.
 At right angle of the filaments are gill lamellae which increase the surface area
of the gills.
 Water is taken in through the mouth and forced out of the gills and out through
an opening on each side of the body.
 The flow of water over the gill lamellae and flow of blood in them are in
opposite direction, (technically!!) known as countercurrent flow. This mechanism
is to increase efficiency of gas exchange.
The countercurrent flow
 The main feature of this system is that the blood and the water that flow over
the gill lamellae do so in opposite directions.
 This makes the gas exchange efficient, that the blood that is already rich in
oxygen meets water, which has its maximum concentration of oxygen.
 Therefore there is a constant rate of diffusion of gases across the entire length of
the gill lamellae.
 In this way, 80% of gas exchange could take place, whereas, there is only a
maximum of 50% gas exchange in parallel flow, Which takes place in human gas
exchange system (lungs).
Countercurrent flow
Water

10 7 5 4 2

9 6 4 3 1

Blood
 The numbers represent oxygen concentration.

 Almost all the water in the blood in diffused into the blood.