Digestive system and digestion of food in cultivable finfish and crustaceans

Abstract

The digestive system in fish and shellfish shows much variation in structure and function and is specialised and adapted to suit specific diets. Variation in crustacean digestive system is mainly in the foregut which may be a simple passage way or highly complex chambered structure provided with triturating, straining and filtering mechanisms. In fish the length of the intestine is highly variable depending on the diet and the intestine-body length ratio is low in carnivores and very high in herbivores and detritivores. In cyprinids a true stomach is completely absent.