shown to cause severe hemoconcentration, a dou- 

 bling of serum phosphate, a 60% increase in serum 

 glucose and an uncompensated respiratory acidosis 

 in menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus (Hall et al., 1926). 

 Extreme hypoxia in the brown bullhead, Ictaiurus 

 nebulosus, and the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, 

 in fresh water, resulted in severe albuminemia 

 (Bieter, 1931). Hunn (1969) found that rainbow trout 

 subjected to hypoxic stress showed a doubling of 

 plasma phosphate. 



Juvenile steelhead stressed for 35 days at 116.0% 

 nitrogen saturation show no significant decrease 

 in mean weight or length when compared to other 

 test groups. These data would tend to support the 

 hypoxia argument at the expense of the starvation 

 proposition. Hypoxia should show an increase in 

 serum cholesterol (Wedemeyer, 1970a), but the 

 present data suggest that cholesterol in fact declines 

 in steelhead exposed to 116.0% nitrogen saturation. 

 While steelhead exposed to 116.0% nitrogen satura- 

 tion alter their serum concentrations of phosphate 

 (Hunn, 1969) and calcium (Wedemeyer, 1971) in a 

 manner consistent with the hypoxia thesis, compar- 

 able data for the starvation interpretation is missing. 

 In reciprocal fashion, decreases in albumin and total 

 protein are known (Phillips et al., 1960) following a 

 period of starvation, but comparable data for 

 chronic hypoxia is needed. Steelhead serum potas- 

 sium and AP-ase levels need to be determined for 

 both chronic hypoxia and starvation. 



Further work will be necessary to ascertain 

 whether these signs reflect hypoxia and tissue 

 necrosis, starvation or some generalized stressor 

 response. 



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Changes in Blood Chemistry 99 



