Thermal optima and tolerance in the eurythermic goldfish (Carassius auratus): relationships between whole-animal aerobic capacity and maximum heart rate.

The wide thermal tolerance range of a eurythermic fish (goldfish, Carassius auratus) was used to evaluate how temperature performance curves derived from maximum heart rate (fH) related to those for aerobic scope. For acclimation temperatures of 12°, 20°, and 28°C, optimum temperatures derived from aerobic scope curves (Topt) were 19.9° ± 0.4°, 19.3° ± 0.8°, and 28.7° ± 0.8°C, respectively. The Arrhenius breakpoint temperatures (TAB) for maximum fH were 21.5° ± 0.6°, 23.8° ± 0.9°, and 24.6° ± 0.5°C, respectively. The TQB (temperature where the incremental Q10 of maximum fH decreased abruptly below 1.9) was 24.0° ± 0.7° and 29.8° ± 0.6°C for the 12° and 28°C acclimation temperatures, respectively, and was within the Topt window (11.5°-30.3° and 26.9°-30.5°C, respectively), but TQB for the 20°C acclimation temperature (27.3° ± 0.6°C) was higher than the Topt window (15.4°-23.2°C). Warm acclimation increased the upper critical temperature (Tcrit; from 37.2° ± 0.7° to 44.7° ± 11.8°C) as well as the temperature that triggered a cardiac arrhythmia (Tarr; from 31.1° ± 0.7° to 39.3° ± 0.4°C). In conclusion, we propose that maximum fH and its associated rate transition temperatures (TAB, TQB, and Tarr) can be used to estimate the upper thermal tolerance of eurythermic as well as stenothermic fish independent of acclimation temperature. All the same, great care is needed with such evaluations. For the goldfish, while TAB and TQB were always within the Topt window for 90% of maximum aerobic scope and Topt was closely associated with TAB for 12°C-acclimated fish, TQB had the closest association after 28°C acclimation, and both TAB and TQB were above the Topt window after 20°C acclimation.