Hello!!

Don’t worry. I didn’t forget about your Daily Fun Fact From Flora.

But, as it is getting late (lockdown has turned me into a granny I can’t help it), this shall be a brief one.

Now I know that I have a habit of yakking on about fish quite a lot when no one really asked me too but there is one fact that remains neglected YET IT IS ONE OF THE MOST CRUCIAL.

Flora — do fish drink wate r ?

Finally you will have the answer.

And the answer is

It depends.

AND THAT"S NOT A COP-OUT I PROMISE

Are they a salty fish (at this point I feel like a pretty salty fish) or a freshwater fish ?

And I see what you’re thinking. Oh Flora is it that easy? The fish that live in sweet sweet freshwater drink and those stuck in what is essentially a MASSIVE bowl of oversalted soup cannot. Right?

Wrong.

Salt water fish do drink.

Freshwater fish do not.

I KNOW.

Okay if I"ve just blown your tiny mind let me explain.

Fish skinis pretty much impermeable , meaning that water cannot pass through. But the gillsare very permeable. They have to let dissolved gasesin and out and they also let water in and out.

That means that in a saltwater environment , the concentration of the surrounding sea is pretty much the same as the concentration of stuff in the cells. That means the water overall doesn’t diffuse in or out of the cells.

This means that to get enough water, these fish drink (not to forget), pass a small amount of urine and secrete any excess saltat their gills.

In freshwater on the other hand, the environment is so much less salty than the fish’s cells that the water will diffuse into the cells.

That means these fish don’t NEED to drink because the water is making its way into their cells by itself.

This means that they do not drink , they pass copious amounts of urine and they get the salts they need from their food.

Hope you enjoyed a brief but beautiful foray into the fish world.

Love Flora xxx

PS GIF of me and all my groupies xxx