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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 4, 2025

Swimming Performance Assessment in Fishes

Swimming Performance Assessment in Fishes

Published on: May 20, 2011

Water velocity shapes fish movement behavior.

William D Hintz¹, Anthony P Porreca², James E Garvey³

¹Department of Environmental Sciences and Lake Erie Center, The University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA.

Journal of Fish Biology

|January 26, 2024

Summary

Fluvial fishes like sturgeon conserve energy in rivers by adjusting movement. Older sturgeon strategically hold position or move upstream to minimize swimming costs in variable water velocities.

Keywords:

behavioral plasticity cost of transport energy landscape movement sturgeon

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Area of Science:

Ichthyology
Riverine Ecology
Hydrodynamics

Background:

Stream ecosystems create dynamic energy landscapes due to heterogeneous flow fields.
Fish movement behavior is hypothesized to align with energy conservation in these environments, yet empirical evidence is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally investigate if sturgeon movement behaviors (holding position, moving upstream, or downstream) minimize swimming costs in heterogeneous flow fields.
To assess the effects of water velocity on movement behavior across different age classes of pallid and shovelnose sturgeon.

Main Methods:

Exposed pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) and shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) of three age classes (0, 1, and 5 years) to a dynamic velocity field (0.02–0.53 m s⁻¹).
Recorded and analyzed movement behaviors (holding position, upstream, downstream) in relation to water velocity and fish age.

Main Results:

Both sturgeon species showed similar patterns in movement behavior across age classes.
Moving downstream increased with water velocity for all ages. Moving upstream showed an inverse relationship with velocity in young fish, becoming independent in older fish.
Holding position was most frequent, occurring similarly across velocities in young fish but inversely related to velocity in older fish. Older fish moved upstream more frequently.

Conclusions:

Sturgeon exhibit age-specific swimming behaviors that likely mitigate energetic costs in complex riverine flow fields.
These behaviors suggest an evolved strategy to maximize net energy gain in dynamic aquatic environments.
Findings support the hypothesis that fluvial fish movement is consistent with energy conservation in heterogeneous flow.