Meeting Abstract
The Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) is a pelagic schooling species that is capable of burrowing in sandy substrates. Observations of wild caught sand lance revealed an unusual behavior where fish exhibit suspended animation lying on the bottom of a tank without burrowing; a behavior we term the ‘Lazarus effect’. We were interested in examining which types of stress cause the Lazarus effect and if fish would perform this behavior on sandy substrates. Sand lances were exposed to either physiological (hypoxia at 20% oxygen saturation) or mechanical (a chase protocol) stressors, both of which were compared to an unstressed group. We also replicated experiments with and without a sandy substrate. We predicted that fish exposed to either stressor would be less likely to actively swim when compared to unstressed fish. As burrowing has been described as an anti-predator defense, we also predicted that fish exposed to mechanical stressors would bury more often and fish exposed to physiological stressors as this stimuli would be more similar to a predator attack. Preliminary results suggest that when sand is present, stressed fish are more likely to respond with the Lazarus effect or swim actively regardless of the type of stressor. However, when we ran trials without sand, mechanically stressed fish swam actively, while physiologically stressed fish were more likely to show the Lazarus effect. These results suggest sand lances can respond uniquely to different forms of stressors, which could allow for their continued success in high stress environments.
