R. Fisher et Dr. Bellwood, Effects of feeding on the sustained swimming abilities of late-stage larval Amphiprion melanopus, CORAL REEF, 20(2), 2001, pp. 151-154
To date, all sustained swimming experiments on tropical reef fish larvae ha
ve been conducted using unfed larvae. Such studies may produce unrealistic
estimates of sustained swimming abilities. We examined the effect of food o
n the sustained swimming ability of late-stage Amphiprion melanopus. Larvae
were swum in a six-channel swimming flume at 7 cm s(-1), with "unfed" and
"fed" channels. Fed channels had Artemia nauplii added four times per day f
or 10 min. Feeding larvae during swimming experiments significantly increas
ed their average swimming distance from around 6.9 to 12.2 km, and the maxi
mum swimming distance from around 11.8 to 28.7 kin. Existing flume-based es
timates of sustained swimming may be underestimating field abilities. With
access to food, many larvae may have the potential to swim considerably gre
ater distances than previously suggested.