Ventilatory responses of the clown knifefish, Chitala ornata, to hypercarbia and hypercapnia.

The aim of the present study was to determine the roles of externally versus internally oriented CO/H-sensitive chemoreceptors in promoting cardiorespiratory responses to environmental hypercarbia in the facultative air-breathing fish, Chitala ornata (the clown knifefish). Fish were exposed to environmental acidosis (pH ~ 6.0) or hypercarbia (≈ 30 torr PCO) that produced changes in water pH equal to the pH levels of the acidotic water to distinguish the relative roles of CO versus H. We also injected acetazolamide to elevate arterial levels of PCO and [H] in fish in normocarbic water to distinguish between internal and external stimuli. We measured changes in gill ventilation frequency, air breathing frequency, heart rate and arterial blood pressure in response to each treatment as well as the changes produced in arterial PCO and pH. Exposure to normocarbic water of pH 6.0 for 1 h did not produce significant changes in any measured variable. Exposure to hypercarbic water dramatically increased air breathing frequency, but had no effect on gill ventilation. Hypercarbia also produced a modest bradycardia and fall in arterial blood pressure. Injection of acetazolamide produced similar effects. Both hypercarbia and acetazolamide led to increases in arterial PCO and falls in arterial pH although the changes in arterial PCO/pH were more modest following acetazolamide injection as were the increases in air breathing frequency. The acetazolamide results suggest that the stimulation of air breathing was due, at least in part, to stimulation of internally oriented CO/H chemoreceptors monitoring blood gas changes.