Title
Swimming performances of three Colorado River fishes
Publication Date
1985
Keywords
swimming, swimming performance, stamina, squawfish, swimming ability
Journal or Book Title
Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
Abstract
A stamina tunnel was used to determine the prolonged swimming performance of age-0 humpback chubs (Gila cypha), bonytail chubs (G. elegans), and Colorado squawfish(Ptychocheilus lucius) and of subadult Colorado squawfish. The 'fatigue velocity' in body lengthsper second at which 50% of the test fish were fatigued (FV50) was determined at 14, 20, and 26C. The range of FV50 values for the three fishes (average total length in parentheses) were:humpback chubs (95 mm), 4.4-5.7: bonytail chubs (99 mm), 4.7-5.8; small Colorado squawfish(104 mm), 4.0-4.5; large Colorado squawfish (432 mm), 2.0-2.3. Absolute speed of largeColorado squawfish was about 2.4 times that of small Colorado squawfish. Swimming ability ofthe subyearlings increased with increased water temperature. These rare fish had prolongedswimming abilities similar to other fish species.
Pages
397-402
Volume
114