EVALUATION OF EMPIRICAL STATISTICAL-MODELS FOR ANALYZING SWIMMING SPEEDS OF TELEOST FISHES

Average swimming speeds attained for eight, discrete distances were de termined for 10 teleost fishes: Atlantic croaker, bluegill sunfish, ch annel catfish, goldfish, hardhead sea catfish, large-mouth bass, pigfi sh, pinfish, sheepshead porgy and striped burrfish. Swimming speeds in cm s(-1) were analyzed by linear, quadratic, cubic and quartic regres sion, log(10) transformations, and by fitting exponential, geometric ( power function), hyperbolic and logistic models by linear approximatio ns. Swimming speeds in body lengths s(-1) (BLS) were analyzed by linea r, quadratic, cubic and quartic regression. The ''best'' method of ana lysis is quadratic regression for ail species for both measures of swi mming speed. Regression using BLS, however, provided improved r(2)% co mpared to regression using cm s(-1). The wide range in morphology repr esented by these species was expected to yield a number of species-spe cific models. The lack of diversity in these modelling results is attr ibuted to trade-offs and compromises in the functional designs, amount s of muscle mass as a percentage of body mass, and longitudinal depth distributions of the species.