The oesophagus, in most cases, is a short, broad, muscular passageway between the mouth and the stomach. Taste buds are usually present along with additional mucus cells. Freshwater fishes are reputed to have longer (stronger?) oesophageal muscles than marine fish, presumably because of the osmoregulatory advantage to be gained by squeezing out the greatest possible amount of water from their food (i.e., marine fish would be drinking seawater in addition to that ingested with their food and freshwater fish would have to excrete any excess water).