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Title

Collective behavior and upstream tactics of schooling fish in an obstacle environment.

Authors

Xie, Qingrong; Wang, Li; Yang, Shengfa; Hu, Jiang; Li, Wenjie; Yang, Wei; Zhang, Xianbing; Zhang, Peng

Abstract

Fish often swim in structured group formations (fish schooling). Hydrodynamics is one of the key external factors that might affect an organism's swimming behavior, along with other aspects such as food resources and predators. Most previous studies on collective behavior of schooling fish have been conducted in relatively simplified tanks, with few focusing on collective behavior in complex flow environments with obstacles. In this study, complex hydrodynamic environments were constructed by arranging staggered cobbles in the flume to investigate the collective behavior and upstream tactics of juvenile fish under different hydrodynamic conditions, including low- (0.4 Ucrit) and high-flow (0.8 Ucrit) conditions. The results indicate the following: (1) Under high-flow conditions, schooling fish tend to swim side-by-side with stronger cohesion when confronted with the impact of high flow velocity; (2) in low-flow conditions, schooling fish display increased polarization, evidenced by reduced bearing angles between neighboring and focal fish, signifying improved group coordination; and (3) in high-flow conditions, schooling fish use the sheltered area behind obstacles to go upstream, while in none-obstructed zone, migrating upstream is challenging. This study provides a new approach for studying fish swimming behavior in natural-like environments and offers insights and theoretical references for fish habitat restoration works.

Subjects

FISH schooling; COLLECTIVE behavior; FISH locomotion; GROUP formation; FISH habitats

Publication

Environmental Biology of Fishes, 2025, Vol 108, Issue 5, p853

ISSN

0378-1909

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s10641-025-01693-9

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