Influence of anoxia on the energy metabolism of goldfish, Carassius auratus (L.)

1. Goldfish has a large anoxia tolerance. At 20°C 10 hr of complete anoxia can be survived without any problem. The concentration of some metabolites were determined in dependence of anoxia, both in whole fish and dorsal white muscle.
2. Lactate production does not cover the energy need.
3. Apart from an increase in lactate level we were able to demonstrate an increase in concentration of alanine, creatine, total CO2 and ADP.
4. Concentrations of ATP and creatine-phosphate decrease with anoxia while AMP, glutamate and volatile fatty acids did not change significantly.
5. The “energy charge” in the white muscle falls during hypoxia from 1.0 till 0.8 and stabilizes at that level during about 10 hr although the direct energy reserves of ATP and creatine-phosphate decrease.