A common misconception people have about fish is that they don’t have any blood. In reality, all vertebrates (including humans) and many invertebrates like octopuses and squid are made of cells surrounded by a jelly-like substance called “interstitial fluid.” The interstitial fluid contains dissolved oxygen, nutrients, waste products from metabolism which diffuse through the cell membrane to be used for energy production or excreted as urine. Fish use haemoglobin in their erythrocytes to carry oxygen from the gills or lungs into the tissues and organs with their circulatory system consisting of heart-pumping blood through arteries and veins. This means that YES! Fish do have blood.
There are a few fish that don’t have bones, such as eels and sharks. But these fish do have blood. The structure of the red blood cells in cartilaginous fish may be slightly different from those of bony fish, but they still carry oxygen throughout their bodies the same way all vertebrates do, whether they are cold-blooded or warm-blooded (or if you want to get technical, homeothermic).
What color is fish blood?
The blood of fish is colorless [to humans] but actually, it’s very similar to the blood in our veins. If you study a fish under a microscope, you will see that its blood has red cells and white cells too just like human blood does. The difference is that each fish type has its own special features. That’s why some people say “fish have no blood” when they are really saying ‘the fish I’m looking at doesn’t have any red or white (or perhaps they’re talking about goldfish).
Do fish have blood in them? If yes Where is the blood in fish?
You might think you’d find fish blood in the back, the center of a fish – but actually, their hearts are in the abdomen and gills, with arteries leading to the head. When fish get injured on their bellies they bleed there.
Why don’t we see blood in fish?
Fins and scales make it hard for us to see blood if fish have been injured. If a small wound is clean then white or yellow tissue will heal over it quickly while blood inside the body heals faster still. So once a small cut has healed up we can no longer see where it was even when looking closely at it.
How to treat a bleeding fish?
Time needed: 10 minutes.
There are quite few methods to treat a bleeding fish in aquarium. this article will list (not in order of significance) some most useful methods.
- Adding salt to the wound
Adding salt to the wound this method is very effective at stopping bleeding. the fish can be directly treated by putting salt on the wound and that should stop bleeding within few seconds. other recommended ways are adding a small amount of salt into aquarium water or on food.
- Turning off the lights
Turning off the lights while bleeding, if you noticed your fish is bleeding during daylight then turn off all lights in the aquarium. Fishes have no night vision and I have often seen my fish stopped moving and calmly resting when night falls this rest will make them feel better. make sure your tank hood is properly secured to prevent any jumping from a tank during sleep, it’s better not to have a full cover lid just use something like a screen top or a small nettop to prevent your fish from jumping out.
- Add “salt” to the aquarium water
Adding “salt” to the aquarium water, or immediately adding salt to food if you need the fast results for existing bleeding.
- Add vinegar or lemon juice into the water
Another option you can use would be to add vinegar or lemon juice into the water, but this will only work for a small amount of bleeding as once it stops you have to do another round.
- Immediate cleaning the rock and décor
immediate cleaning the rock and décor when a fish is bleeding. Remember if your fish is fine in dry rock then no need to clean it as blood should stay there until dissolved/dried up without starting to smell. Also using fish wrong pallet medication will cause fishes that are healthy to bleed, so always read your drug ingredients before adding it in aquarium water to avoid unwanted bleeding.
Conclusion
well the question we has was Does fish have blood? We addressed this topic through a detailed answer that Fish does have their own blood cells. The only problem is that you do not see any of them because the amount of blood inside it is very tiny and there is no air or water to carry out oxygen exchange like our blood in the human body thus it DOES NOT bleed unless iS injured. so basically fishes have their own type of red-colored liquid filled with different types of minerals.
