Effect of Temperature Shock on Cultured Olive Flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) and Black Rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli)

Aim of this research is to investigate the effect of temperature shocks on the physiological responses of cultured olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) and black rockfish (Sebastes schlegeli). Olive flounder and black rockfish were suffered with high and low temperature shocks for 4 and 8h, respectively, in laboratory conditions and then the changes in glucose, lactate, total protein, uric acid, and triglycerides-glycerol in blood plasma were analyzed. We observed that lactate and uric acid increased for up to 4h and then decreased for up to 8h by the high and low temperature shocks, and total protein decreased for up to 4h and then recovered for up to 8h by the high temperature shock in both fishes. Glucose by the high and low temperature shocks and triglycerides-glycerol by the low temperature shock increased for up to 4h, and then decreased in olive flounder, but increased for up to 8h in black rockfish. From the result, we speculated that the two fishes have an interspecific variation in the regulatory systems of glucose and triglycerides-glycero1. Glucose would play important role as an energy source during the temperature shocks and for an intermediate substance for low temperature tolerance, and glycerol of triglycerides-glycerol would play an important role for low temperature tolerance. In olive flounder, the turnover of chemical change by temperature shock took more than 4h, all chemicals returned almost to the initial level for up to 8h, but fish death followed only in 8h with the high temperature shocked group within two days. Therefore, we suggested that fish would be damaged severely by the longer time exposure of high temperature and mortality would occur after a certain time later than the shocked time as a post-effect.