swimming performance

Swimming physiology and metabolic costs of swimming are important for understanding the effects of environmental factors on fish behavior. The new hyperbaric swimming respirometer (HSR) is a valuable tool for studying fish physiology during swimming, as it can simulate depths of up to 80m. The HSR has been successfully tested with female European eels (Anguilla anguilla) and provides opportunities for future research on the effects of pressure, temperature, and flow velocity on fish metabolism and swimming performance.

Measuring swimming performance of small fishes contributes to a better understanding of how environmental factors affect individual organisms and potentially populations dynamics (e.g., through variable dispersal and connectivity). Here, we automated multi-lane swimming chambers to reduce operator interference and optimize swimming performance measurements of early life stages of fishes. Testing different experimental protocols, we found species-specific sensitivities in offspring from two tropical fishes.

The swimming performance of larval fishes is critical for their survival. In this review, we synthesized what affects the swimming performance of larval fishes. Specifically, a meta-analysis revealed how environmental stress affects larval swimming performance. Furthermore, we provide suggestions what methodologies to use when testing swimming performance in larval fishes.

Salinity adds energetic costs for ion regulation in fishes. We tested whether shiner perch are affected by changes in salinity, and found that most metrics related to swimming performance and oxygen consumption of shiner perch were unaffected. This suggests that shiner perch are well-adapted to the fluctuating salinity in their coastal habitat.

Swimming ability is crucial for larval fish survival. We measured growth, development and ontogenetic changes in critical swimming speed of Atlantic herring larvae at three temperatures, and found it to be negatively correlated to body length-at-age, suggesting a trade-off between growth rate and locomotor activity.

Knowledge on larval swimming capabilities is required as baseline information to create computational models of flatfish transport, foraging and growth. In this study, we measured critical swimming speeds of European plaice, and found that inter-individual differences in swimming performance were unrelated to body condition.