Changing Salinity Affects Hematological and Histological Response in Hybrids and Hybrid Triploids between River Puffer, Takifugu obscurus and Tiger Puffer, T. rubripes

We investigated the physiological responses of the river puffer, Takifugu obscurus, the tiger puffer, T. rubripes, a hybrids of the two (river puffer×tiger puffer) and a hybrid triploids to acute changes of salinity from 30 psu to 0 psu and from 0 psu to 30 psu. The blood and plasma factors of each species were elevated for 48, 72, or 96 hrs, and thereafter decreased due to hyper-osmoregulation and hypo-osmoregulation. In hyper-osmoregulation and hypo-osmoregulation, the cortisol concentration of river puffer, hybrids, hybrid triploids and tiger puffer increased for 12 or 48 hrs, and decreased thereafter. Chloride cells in the gill filaments of each species increased with increasing salinity, and melano-macrophages in the kidney tissue of each species increased with decreasing salinity. In conclusion, the hematological and stress responses of the hybrids were between those of the river puffer and tiger puffer, and the hematological responses of the hybrid triploids were higher than those of the other groups. The stress response of the hybrids was more sensitive than that of the hybrid triploids. In all groups, the histological responses of kidney in hyper-osmoregulation were more sensitive than those in hypo-osmoregulation.