text: Fish exhibit a wide range of tactics to counteract aquatic hypoxia, but when escape from the hypoxic stress is not possible, maintaining oxygen extraction and delivery becomes an essential component to survival. Except for the Antarctic ice fish that does not, most fish use hemoglobin (Hb) within their red blood cells to bind chemically and deliver 95% of the oxygen extracted from the environment to the working tissues. Maintaining oxygen extraction and delivery to the tissues allows continued activity under hypoxic stress and is in part determined by modifications in two different blood parameters: hematocrit and the binding properties of hemoglobin.