Eli5 do ocean animals like fish or sea turtles need to drink water? If so how do they do it?
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Fish and sea turtles are able to obtain the water they need from saltwater. Fish have powerful kidneys that can pump salt out of the water and concentrate it into their urine, bringing the salinity down to where it should be in their blood. Turtles are different in that they have special glands behind their eyes that filter out and eject the salt from the water they drink.
Mammals though in general cannot drink saltwater even if they live in it their entire lives. Dolphins for example can’t drink seawater and instead get all their moisture intake from the food they eat; if they are starving then they are also dehydrating.
Sea snakes don’t have the salt excretion abilities of turtles or fish, so they wait for rainfall and drink the freshwater that collects on the ocean’s surface.
What about sea plants too? If I feed saltwater to normal plants it would kill them, how do they get their water?
It depends on an animal. Fish gulps in water and can easily handle it. Turtles developed glands to secrete extra salt. I’ve read that some sea snakes cannot drink sea water – during rain they come to the surface and drink rain water. Many animals acquire all of their water from their food.
Sea snakes do need to drink rain, and that is why they are limitted to their current range. Any further north or south and rain is not regular enough to survive.
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I read the first part of the question and thought “Of course ocean animals like fish, it’s the only thing on the menu.”
Who needs a water bottle when you have powerful kidneys and special glands behind your eyes?
Not sure about fish, but i do know that turtles do hqve the ability to breathe through their skin, even though they come up for air sometimes
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