Hemoglobin In Ice Fish

Their blood is almost transparent because of the lack of red blood cells, and they are the only vertebrate that does not have circulating hemoglobin. Those organisms are referred to as Ice fish, and they are one of the unique organism that live in Southern Ocean around Antarctica and Southern South America, where water temperatures remain relatively stable.

Hemoglobin is a protein within mammalian red blood cells that transports oxygen for delivery to tissues throughout the body. Having red blood cells, would make the blood thicker and more difficult to pump and circulate, therefore, one of the icefish’s adaptation, is having no red blood cell. Instead they have clear blood, and it is what makes icefish able to survive in extreme cold environments because clear blood makes it easier to pump blood when it is not thick and loaded with cells. Having no red blood cells, is not the only adaptation for icefish, but it also has many others, for example It lacks hemoglobin; ocean water is saturated with oxygen and icefish can diffuse ample oxygen across their scales skin, so hemoglobin is not needed. Icefish lives in extreme cold temperature, which generally ranging from -1.8 to +2.0 °C. To survive in this extreme cold environment. Icefish has antifreeze protein to protect them from freezing. Antifreeze protein refer to a class of polypeptides produced by certain
Also, it is one of the few organisms that can live and adapt to very low water temp, and the only organism that lack the oxygen-binding protein hemoglobin. They found in depths such as 1 900 meters underwater and reach sizes of 1.7 meters and weigh up to 80 k. Icefish get very sensitive to heat, they like to live in a cold environment, where there is fewer