Meeting Abstract

27.6  Monday, Jan. 4  The role of flow sensing in the undulatory swimming of teleost fish (Notemigonus crysoleucas) MICHEL, K.B.*; STEWART, W.; MULLER, U.; MCHENRY, M.J.; University of Groningen; Univ. of California, Irvine; California State University Fresno; Univ. of California, Irvine krijn.michel@gmail.com

Fish use a variety of sensory systems to direct and control swimming. Although flow sensing aids a fish’s ability to orient in their environment, it is unclear whether this modality provides information to control the swimming motion. We evaluated the role of flow sensing in locomotion by comparing the steady-swimming kinematics of fish (Notemigonus crysoleucas) before and after pharmacologically ablating the mechanosensory lateral line system. At higher speeds (1.1 and 2.2 body lengths/s), we found no significant difference between fish before and after the ablation. However, at low speed (0.45 body lengths/s) fish lacking lateral line signals moved with significantly greater lateral amplitude along the length of the body. Hydrodynamic theory suggests that these kinematics create greater drag, and consequently require an elevated energetic demand, relative to fish having an unaltered lateral line system. These results suggests that fish use the lateral line system to mediate swimming kinematics for enhanced efficiency at slow, but not fast, swimming speeds.