ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of swimming in shaping patterns of habitat-use in adult reef fishes. It examines the diversity of swimming modes employed by reef fishes and how these may relate to the environmental challenges of living a reef-associated lifestyle. The chapter explores the importance of fin morphology for patterns of performance, and how the acquisition of a unique fin shape may have been a key determinant in the success of labriform-swimming fishes on reefs. It discusses the importance of behaviour as a modulating factor in the link between fish swimming morphology, performance and patterns of resource use. Wave-induced water motion creates gradients of environmental stress that directly interact with the swimming capabilities of species to shape their patterns of distribution and abundance on reefs. Combining high speed performance with efficiency and flexibility, labriform swimming appears to provide a highly versatile mode of swimming that is ideally suited to the challenges of a reef-associated lifestyle.
