Do tarpon have lungs?
The answer is no, but they do have a lung like tissue that contains huge amounts of blood capillaries that lines their swim bladders. This lung like tissue enables a tarpon to gulp air to supplement its oxygen needs by incorporating oxygen from the atmosphere directly into its bloodstream.
This is very important to the tarpon when they are in water with low dissolved oxygen levels.
Tarpon evolved to live in environments in which the dissolved oxygen levels in the water are very low. Tarpon can thrive in backwater tidal creeks and bays that are not suited for most species of fish that require water with normal dissolved oxygen levels to survive.
Most fish cannot gulp air so if the dissolved oxygen levels where they are fall too low, then those fish species will suffocate and die if they don't leave that area.
The swim bladder of the tarpon is connected to the tarpon's throat which enables it to gulp air and directly infuse its blood with oxygen. Tarpon also have gills like a normal fish and use both to complete their oxygen needs.
To be clear, a tarpon needs to gulp air to survive. It cannot get sufficient amounts of dissolved oxygen from the water 100% of the time.
The backwater environments in which the tarpon thrives in are typically characterized by slow moving and hot water. A tarpon can withstand water temperatures of more than 90 degrees. Those temperatures would kill most fish species. It would kill most fish not just because of the high temperatures but also because of the low dissolved oxygen levels in the water.
Areas with very little tidal movement are much less oxygen enriched than environments with a robust current. The current will bring in oxygen rich water and help the fish breathe. The backwater tidal pools that tarpon can live in are practically stagnant. This gives the tarpon a huge evolutionary advantage over gill only water breathing fish.
Hot water is a life and death challenge for most types of inshore fish. Hot water cannot hold as much dissolved oxygen as cooler water can. This is why many fish species cannot compete with a tarpon's ability to gulp air to supplement its oxygen needs.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the tidal creeks and grass flats all over Florida for more than 40 years. Tarpon are my favorite fish to catch. In the article below, I will teach you more about the tarpon's ability to breathe air and how to fish for them.
Read the rest of the article below to learn more.
Watch the video below and learn more about the rudimentary lung system of a tarpon.
The answer is no, but they do have a lung like tissue that contains huge amounts of blood capillaries that lines their swim bladders. This lung like tissue enables a tarpon to gulp air to supplement its oxygen needs by incorporating oxygen from the atmosphere directly into its bloodstream.
This is very important to the tarpon when they are in water with low dissolved oxygen levels.
Tarpon evolved to live in environments in which the dissolved oxygen levels in the water are very low. Tarpon can thrive in backwater tidal creeks and bays that are not suited for most species of fish that require water with normal dissolved oxygen levels to survive.
Most fish cannot gulp air so if the dissolved oxygen levels where they are fall too low, then those fish species will suffocate and die if they don't leave that area.
The swim bladder of the tarpon is connected to the tarpon's throat which enables it to gulp air and directly infuse its blood with oxygen. Tarpon also have gills like a normal fish and use both to complete their oxygen needs.
To be clear, a tarpon needs to gulp air to survive. It cannot get sufficient amounts of dissolved oxygen from the water 100% of the time.
The backwater environments in which the tarpon thrives in are typically characterized by slow moving and hot water. A tarpon can withstand water temperatures of more than 90 degrees. Those temperatures would kill most fish species. It would kill most fish not just because of the high temperatures but also because of the low dissolved oxygen levels in the water.
Areas with very little tidal movement are much less oxygen enriched than environments with a robust current. The current will bring in oxygen rich water and help the fish breathe. The backwater tidal pools that tarpon can live in are practically stagnant. This gives the tarpon a huge evolutionary advantage over gill only water breathing fish.
Hot water is a life and death challenge for most types of inshore fish. Hot water cannot hold as much dissolved oxygen as cooler water can. This is why many fish species cannot compete with a tarpon's ability to gulp air to supplement its oxygen needs.
I am a FISHING CHARTER CAPTAIN on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been fishing the tidal creeks and grass flats all over Florida for more than 40 years. Tarpon are my favorite fish to catch. In the article below, I will teach you more about the tarpon's ability to breathe air and how to fish for them.
Read the rest of the article below to learn more.
Watch the video below and learn more about the rudimentary lung system of a tarpon.
When did tarpon evolve into air breathers?
The Megalops Atlanticus is the tarpon that we all love to catch in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean today. However, if you had a time machine, you could have caught one 18 million years ago. Today's version of a tarpon has been around a very long time.
Tarpon most likely evolved in the same types of stagnant lagoons that inhabit today. Those environments have a very poor water flow and very low dissolved oxygen levels. This helps keep the tarpon's predators from entering those environments. Their main predators are sharks and sharks require large amounts of oxygen to survive. That swim bladder sure is a nifty evolutionary advantage for the tarpon's long term survival.
Have you ever noticed that tarpon roll more often during sunrise? The reason that tarpon have to gulp so much more during sunrise is because there is no photosynthesis occurring during the night.
This means that the oxygen producing plants and diatoms in the water have not been making enough oxygen to support the tarpon's respiratory needs. The tarpon have to gulp a lot more frequently to meet their oxygen demands first thing in the morning.
First light is definitely my favorite time to fish for tarpon. When the water is in the upper 70's and low 80's and you don't see any tarpon gulping, then it is a safe bet that there are no tarpon around. It's time to move if you want to catch some.
Learn how to catch a tarpon in Florida here.
The hot water makes them breathe much more frequently. So if you want to find a tarpon early in the morning in hot water, then it will be very easy to do if there are any in your vicinity. A big, shiny, silver fish is very hard to miss when the rising sun reflects off of their bodies.
They move around quite a bit in their search for food. So once you find them, start fishing because they might only be around for an hour or so before they move again.
WANT TO CATCH A TARPON? BOOK YOUR FISHING CHARTER TODAY!
Conclusion:
Tarpon are an amazing evolutionary success story. They have been around for 18 million years and they are still going strong. It is probably because of their amazing lung like swim bladders. Those quasi respiratory organs give tarpon an evolutionary advantage over many of their predators and competitors. This opens up new feeding grounds where their competitors cannot follow them.
So the answer to the question, "Do tarpon have lungs?" is no, but their swim bladders preform just like a rudimentary lung. I hope that this article has been helpful.
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