Meeting Abstract

53.6  Thursday, Jan. 6  Escape responses of larval fish to a predator’s strike FEITL, KE*; NGO, V; MCHENRY, MJ; Univ. of California, Irvine; Univ. of California, Irvine; Univ. of California, Irvine kfeitl@uci.edu

Larval fish use the lateral line system to sense the water flow created by a predator’s strike. Despite its potential importance to survival, it is unclear whether this ability becomes compromised when a fish swims. Therefore, we compared the behavioral responsiveness of swimming and motionless zebrafish (Danio rerio) larvae when exposed to the flow of a suction-feeding predator. This flow was generated using a custom flow tank that generates a highly-repeatable flow stimulus that closely approximates the accelerations generated during suction feeding. Using high-speed video recordings, we found that motionless larvae were nearly twice as likely to respond to the stimulus with an escape response as swimming larvae. However, the latency between stimulus and response was unaffected by swimming. This suggests that swimming creates changes in the hydrodynamics or neurophysiology that reduce the probability, but not the speed, of a response to a flow stimulus. These findings demonstrate a sensory benefit to the intermittent swimming behavior observed among a broad diversity of fishes.