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Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline
fishA fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins...
is the
mollyPoecilia sphenops is a species of fish, of the genus Poecilia, known under the common name Molly; to distinguish it from its congeners, it is sometimes called Short-finned Molly or Common Molly. They inhabit fresh water streams, coastal brackish and marine waters of Mexico...
(
Poecilia sp.) which can live in
freshFresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve...
, brackish, or salt water. The European shore crab (
Carcinus maenasCarcinus maenas is a common littoral crab, and an important invasive species. It is listed among the 100 "world's worst invasive types of invasive species" ....
) is an example of a euryhaline invertebrate that can live in salt and brackish water. Euryhaline organisms are commonly found in habitats such as estuaries and tide pools where the salinity changes regularly. However, some organisms are euryhaline because their
life cycleA life cycle is a period involving all different generations of a species succeeding each other through means of reproduction, whether through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction...
involves migration between freshwater and marine environments, as is the case with
salmonSalmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout; the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, a distinction that holds true for the Salmo...
and
eelTrue eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 19 families, 110 genera and approximately 600 species. Most eels are predators...
s.
The opposite of euryhaline organisms are
stenohalineStenohaline describes an organism, usually fish, that cannot handle a wide fluctuation in the salt content of water. Stenohaline is derived from the words: "steno" meaning narrow, and "haline" meaning salt. Many fresh water fish, such as goldfish , tend to be stenohaline and die in environments of...
ones, which can only survive within a narrow range of salinities. Most freshwater organisms are stenohaline, and will die in seawater, and similarly most marine organisms are stenohaline, and cannot live in fresh water.
Partial list of euryhaline fish
- Bull Shark
The bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, also known as the whaler shark, Zambezi shark or unofficially known as Zambi in Africa and Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a shark common worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in rivers. The bull shark is well known for its unpredictable, often...
- Herring
Herring are relatively small oily fish of the genus Clupea found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Two species of Clupea are currently recognized, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring , each of which may be...
- Lamprey
A lamprey is a parasitic marine animal with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. Translated directly, their name means stone lickers . While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, these species make up the minority...
- Molly
Poecilia sphenops is a species of fish, of the genus Poecilia, known under the common name Molly; to distinguish it from its congeners, it is sometimes called Short-finned Molly or Common Molly. They inhabit fresh water streams, coastal brackish and marine waters of Mexico...
- Puffer fish
- Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the family are called trout; the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, a distinction that holds true for the Salmo...
- Shad
The shads or river herrings comprise the genus Alosa, fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. They are distinct from others in that family by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. The several species frequent different areas on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and in the...
- Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York...
- Sturgeon
Sturgeon is the common name used for some 26 species of fish in the family Acipenseridae, including the genera Acipenser, Huso, Scaphirhynchus and Pseudoscaphirhynchus. The term includes over 20 species commonly referred to as sturgeon and several closely related species that have distinct common...
- Tilapia
Tilapia is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the tilapiine cichlid tribe. Tilapia inhabit a variety of fresh water habitats including shallow streams, ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries. Most tilapia are omnivorous with a preference for aquatic vegetation and detritus...
- Trout
Trout are a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
- Barramundi
The Barramundi is a species of catadromous fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. The native species is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Persian Gulf, through Southeast Asia to Papua New Guinea and Northern Australia...
- Madagascar meagre
See also
- Salinity
Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...
- Stenohaline
Stenohaline describes an organism, usually fish, that cannot handle a wide fluctuation in the salt content of water. Stenohaline is derived from the words: "steno" meaning narrow, and "haline" meaning salt. Many fresh water fish, such as goldfish , tend to be stenohaline and die in environments of...
- Fish migration
Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annual, and over distances ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers...
- Osmoregulation
Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of an organism's fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the organism's water content; that is it keeps the organism's fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated. Osmotic pressure is a measure of the tendency of water to move...