DissectMe: The Perch
Amber Lyn Keating PAP Bio Mrs. Vu 1st period
A little bit about The Perch
- Perches move about in schools, often numbering in the hundreds
- Perca flavenscen is the scientific name of the Perch
- Perches have strong teeth and powerful jaws for catching prey
- Their eggs are laid in large gelatinous, adhesive masses
- The yellow perch is identified by its rusty golden color and dark ventricle stripes
- The perch is commonly inactive during the night except for spawning, otherwise it is a day dweller
- The perch has many fine teeth and have jagged scales, these are features that make then identifiable in a crowd
- Unlike many fish in the world, the perch has a record of having varied age, size, and color patters, among other things that define the perch as its own animal and species.
- Perch are carnivorous and will eat just about any kind of creature they can get their mouth around. They will eat other fish, crayfish, snails, insects, worms, freshwater shrimp, and fish meat.
FUN FACT!
The perch has over 6000 species and around 150 families!
__________________________________________________________________________________________
The Objective of this Review
Background Information
Life Cycle of the Perch
Hungry for Perch
Habitat Sweet Habitat
FUN FACT!
When threatened the perch raises these fins as a defense against being eaten. The spines on the fins are extremely sharp and can inflict a painful wound.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Perch Circulatory System Elaboration
it consists of a heart, blood and blood vessels. The heart of a fish is a simple muscular structure that is located between the posterior gill arches. It is enclosed by the pericardial membrane or pericardium. In most fish, the heart consists of an atrium, a ventricle, a sac-like thin-walled structure known as sinus venosus and a tube, known as bulbus arteriosus. In spite of containing four parts, the heart of a fish is considered two-chambered.
The blood contains plasma (the fluid portion of blood) and the blood cells. The red blood cells or the erythrocytes contain hemoglobin, a protein that facilitates the transport of oxygen to the entire body, while the white blood cells are an indispensable part of the immune system. The thromocytes perform the functions that is equivalent to the role executed by the platelets in the human body, i.e. they help in blood clotting. Blood is circulated throughout the body with the help of blood vessels. The blood vessels are of two types, arteries and veins. The arteries are responsible for carrying oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body, while the veins return deoxygenated blood from the different parts of the body to the heart.
In fish, the deoxygenated or oxygen deprived blood, is carried by the veins to the sinus venosus. Sinus venosus is an important constituent of the circulatory system of lower vertebrates. The deoxygenated blood collected by the veins accumulates in the sinus venosus, before entering the heart. Blood first enters the atrium of the heart, which is a large chamber. Then it enters the ventricle, from where it is pumped into the tube, bulbus arteriosus. Through bulbus arteriosus, the blood reaches the aorta and then the gills. The gills are the respiratory organ of a fish and they execute the activities performed by human lungs. They facilitate the exchange of gases, i.e. absorption of oxygen from water and elimination of carbon dioxide. Then the oxygenated blood is transported throughout the body with the help of blood vessels. Blood facilitates the transport of oxygen and nutrients. It also collects carbon dioxide which is again transported to the heart and then to the gills, to be removed from the body.
Though its circulatory system is quite simple compared to that of humans and other mammals, it serves an important purpose by illustrating the different stages of the evolution of the circulatory system in animals. Its heart is also studied to learn the progressive evolution of the four-chambered heart.