Gross and fine anatomy of the respiratory vasculature of the mudskipper, Periophthalmodon schlosseri (Gobiidae: Oxudercinae).

To illustrate vascular modification accompanying transition from aquatic to amphibious life in gobies, we investigated the respiratory vasculatures of the gills and the bucco-opercular cavities in one of the most terrestrially-adapted mudskippers, Periophthalmodon schlosseri, using the corrosion casting technique. The vascular system of Pn. schlosseri retains the typical fish configuration with a serial connection of the gills and the systemic circuits, suggesting a lack of separation of O(2)-poor systemic venous blood and O(2)-rich effluent blood from the air-breathing surfaces.

Air breathing of aquatic burrow-dwelling eel goby, Odontamblyopus lacepedii (Gobiidae: Amblyopinae).

Odontamblyopus lacepedii is an eel goby that inhabits both coastal waters and intertidal zones in East Asia, including Japan. The fish excavates burrows in mudflats but, unlike the sympatric amphibious mudskippers, it does not emerge but stays in the burrows filled with hypoxic water during low tide. Endoscopic observations of the field burrows demonstrated that the fish breathed air in the burrow opening; air breathing commenced 1.