Data from: Intraspecific scaling of the resting and maximum metabolic rates of the crucian carp (Carassius auratus)

The question of how the scaling of metabolic rate with body mass (M) is
achieved in animals is unresolved. Here, we tested the cell metabolism
hypothesis and the organ size hypothesis by assessing the mass scaling of
the resting metabolic rate (RMR), maximum metabolic rate (MMR),
erythrocyte size, and the masses of metabolically active organs in the
crucian carp (Carassius auratus). The M of the crucian carp ranged from
4.5 to 323.9 g, representing an approximately 72-fold difference. The RMR
and MMR increased with M according to the allometric equations RMR =
0.212M0.776 and MMR = 0.753M0.785. The scaling exponents for RMR (br) and
MMR (bm) obtained in crucian carp were close to each other. Thus, the
factorial aerobic scope remained almost constant with increasing M.
Although erythrocyte size was negatively correlated with both
mass-specific RMR and absolute RMR adjusted to M, it and all other
hematological parameters showed no significant relationship with M. These
data demonstrate that the cell metabolism hypothesis does not describe
metabolic scaling in the crucian carp, suggesting that erythrocyte size
may not represent the general size of other cell types in this fish and
the metabolic activity of cells may decrease as fish grows. The mass
scaling exponents of active organs was lower than 1 while that of inactive
organs was greater than 1, which suggests that the mass scaling of the RMR
can be partly due to variance in the proportion of active/inactive organs
in crucian carp. Furthermore, our results provide additional evidence
supporting the correlation between locomotor capacity and metabolic
scaling.