Ammonia Quotient in Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Ammonia quotients (A.Q., ratio of ammonia excreted to O2 consumed) were computed from data on daily fed and starved sockeye salmon (O. nerka). In 22 day starved salmon, where a diel pulse in O2 consumption, but not in ammonia excretion, persisted, the A.Q. was 0.125 at the prepulse stage (0.11 in fed fish); the lowest A.Q. was 0.06 (0.05 in fed fish) at peak O2 consumption. The highest A.Q. of 0.24 was obtained in fed fish at the peak of ammonia output. Based on a theoretical estimate of an aerobic maximum A.Q. of 0.33, it is estimated that protein oxidation changes from 18-38% in starved sockeye and 15-73% in fed fish. The latter value is possibly an overestimate because of the involvement of nonoxidative protein breakdown, but this anaerobic involvement in routine metabolism of sockeye may be negligible.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: