The Swimming Energetics of Trout

Abstract

The oxygen consumption of rainbow trout was measured at a variety of sub fatigue swimming speeds, at a temperature of 15 °C. Five groups of fish were used, a control group and four groups with extra drag loads attached to the body. The logarithm of oxygen consumption was linearly related to swimming speed in all five groups, the slope of the relationship increasing with the size of the extra drag load. The mean standard rate of oxygen consumption was 72·5 mg O2/kg wet weight/h. The active rate of oxygen consumption was highest for the control group(628 mg O2/kg/h) and fell with increasing size of the attached drag load. The active rate for the control group was high in comparison with other salmonid fish, and in comparison with the value expected for the fish. This was not a result of the extra drag loads in the other groups. No explanation for this high value can be found. The critical swimming speed for a 60 min test period was 58·1 cm/sec (2·0 body lengths/sec) for the control group. The values for the critical swimming speeds were slightly higher than those measured for the same species in a previous paper (Webb, 1971). The difference between the two sets of critical swimming speeds is attributed to seasonal changes in swimming performance. The aerobic efficiency was found to reach values of 14·5–15·5% based on the energy released by aerobic metabolism in comparison with the calculated required thrust. The anaerobic contribution to the total energy budget in increasing-velocity tests is considered to be small, and can be neglected. It is concluded that the efficiency of the muscle system in cruising will be approximately 17–20% over the upper 80% of the cruising-speed range, while the caudal propeller efficiency will increase from about 15–75 % over same range. Consideration of the efficiency values for the caudal propeller calculated here, and those predicted by Lighthill’s (1969) model of fish propulsion, suggest that the efficiency of the propeller system will reach an optimum value at the maximum cruising speeds of most fish, and will remain close to this value at spring speeds.