ABSTRACT
Swimming is a fish’s main weapon in its struggle for survival. The same might apply to teleost fish larvae, which suffer considerable mortality, although the correlation between swimming performance and survival is weaker than in adult fish. Vulnerability to larval drift depends on the maximum sustained swimming speed. Flatfish larvae even decrease routine swimming speed, but increase swimming activity during development beyond metamorphosis. In fish, swimming speed is closely tied to body length. Across species, absolute swimming speed increases steadily with body length. The small size and low absolute swimming speeds of larval fish profoundly affect the way in which a swimming larva interacts with the surrounding water. Zebrafish larvae reach peak acceleration at the transition from preparatory to propulsive phase.
