RESEARCH PAPER The status of farmed fish hearts: an alert to improve health and production in three Mediterranean species Ana Pombo • Manuel Blasco • Vicente Climent Received: 19 October 2011 / Accepted: 22 February 2012 / Published online: 8 March 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract The heart ventricles of farmed gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), European seabass (Dicen- trarchus labrax) and Senegalese sole (Solea senegal- ensis) have been examined and we compared them to the corresponding fish from wild populations. These results can help to understand the differences in farmed fish hearts and in the myocardial structure that this condition of growth can produce. Several param- eters were measured in the two groups. Numerical comparisons included heart mass, cardiac and ven- tricular index, ventricle height:width ratio, width and alignment of bulbus arteriosus, ventricular angles and compacta thickness. We confirm that the normal shape of wild fish hearts can be modified as a result from the adaptation to different environments. These changes can modify the structure of myocardium and compromise the cardiac function in farmed species. The ventricle of farmed fish present differences in shape, were misaligned, rounder, with a wider bulbus and thinner compact layer. Further studies are neces- sary to reveal functional significance and possible causes of these abnormal hearts and improve the cardiac welfare of Mediterranean species in culture as a way of ensuring a level of production compatible with economic benefits. Keywords Fish heart ventricle Á Functional morphology Á Sparus aurata Á Dicentrarchus labrax Á Solea senegalensis Introduction Fishes hearts have four chambers: sinus venosus, atrium, ventricle and bulbus arteriosus that in elasmo- branchs is a conus arteriosus (Randall 1968; Santer 1985; Farrell 1991; Farrell and Jones 1992). Benthonic and elasmobranches fishes have a sacular ventricle shape. Active species have pyramidal ventricles and fishes with elongated shape can have tubular ventricle shapes (Santer 1985; Santer et al. 1983; Harrison et al. 1991). The fish heart expresses the adaptability of the circulatory system to the different environments in which they can develop. Differences have been studied in fish heart morphology reflecting the habitat A. Pombo (&) School of Tourism and Maritime Technology (ESTM), Marine Resources Research Group (GIRM), Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPL), Campus 4, Santua ´rio Nossa Senhora dos Reme ´dios, 2520-641 Peniche, Portugal e-mail: ana.pombo@ipleiria.pt M. Blasco Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Zoology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain V. Climent Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Zoology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain 123 Rev Fish Biol Fisheries (2012) 22:779–789 DOI 10.1007/s11160-012-9259-5