Meeting Abstract
We are interested in how schooling fish use visual and flow-sensitive lateral line inputs. We used rummynose tetras (Hemmigrammus rhodostomus), a small freshwater schooling fish, to examine schooling behavior in light and dim conditions both with and without the lateral line (by chemical treatment). We performed an automated kinematic analysis of video recordings to measure schooling metrics including the polar order, nearest neighbor distance, and swimming speed. We found that schooling behavior was indistinguishable between fish without a functional lateral line and the control group. These results suggest that schooling kinematics do not depend on flow sensing. However, long-duration recordings revealed that fish without a functioning lateral line do not school as frequently as control fish. Therefore, vision is sufficient to form and maintain a school, but flow stimuli influence whether groups of H. rhodostomus initiate schooling.
