Histo-morphological description of the digestive system of the Rippon Barbel Barbus altianals (Boulenger 1900): A potential species for culture

Abstract

Morphology of the digestive system can help define the feeding adaptation habits of a given fishspecies in a given environment. In a study to describe the nature and functionality of thedigestive system of Barbus altianalis, samples of B. altianalis were taken from River Nile.Their Lengths and weights were measured and the gut structure preserved. The structure ofthe digestive tract of the B. altianalis was described using simple morphological observationsand standard histological procedures. The digestive tube of B. altianalis is stomachless andvalveless, progressively and uniformly reducing in size from the proximal to distal end. Thedigestive tract is on average 2.22 ± 0.37 times longer than its body length. The mouth isterminal and protrusible and pharyngeal palatal organ is well developed. The last gill arch ismodified into pharyngeal teeth and the eosophagus is short and muscular. Histological sectionsrevealed the presence of taste buds from the lips to the cranial eosophagus and these regionsof the digestive tract are lined by a stratified squamous epithelium. The intestines are lined bysimple or pseudo stratified columnar epithelial layer which is highly folded. Goblet cellscontaining both acidic and neutral mucins are present throughout the entire digestive tractand are more numerous in the pharynx and the proximal part of the intestine. Lobes of pancreaticacini are discrete and scattered among liver cells, around the intestine and few are seen in thespleen surrounding blood vessels. Thus, the liver could most accurately be termed ahepatopancreas structure.