Many fish can swim backwards. Eels are best known for this. Anadromous species, such as salmon and shad, live in the ocean and travel up rivers to spawn.
A inquiry we ran across in our research was “How fast can a salmon swim?”.
I put a link on the post a while back. Water temperature is a major factor on the swim speed of salmon. Being cold blooded they travel slower in colder water, as the water heats up they can move faster. They are capable of short burst of speed at around 20kmph.
Another thing we wanted the answer to was; why do salmon swim upstream and downstream?
Whenever a salmon loses the smell of their natal site, they swim downstream until the smell comes back. For 99% of their journey back, the salmon will fight the current and swim upstream, driven by their sense of smell and their need for a safe and secure birthing site.
What are some examples of fish that swim backwards?
The sea horse is one example but there are many others in the fish world including the razor fish or shrimp fish, that swim a vertical position. Many fish can swim backwards. Eels are best known for this. Anadromous species, such as salmon and shad, live in the ocean and travel up rivers to spawn.
Some fish swim vertically. The sea horse is one example but there are many others in the fish world including the razor fish or shrimp fish, that swim a vertical position. Many fish can swim backwards. Eels are best known for this.
Do salmon swim in schools?
The fish that swim in schools do so primarily for protection. Larger marine mammals, particularly cetaceans of the whale, dolphin and porpoise species, swim together in pods because they are social animals.
First and foremost, schools protect fish from their enemies. 1 It’s the same rule our mothers taught us as youngsters, always stay in a group because there is safety in numbers. Predators find it far easier to chase down and gobble up a fish swimming all alone rather than trying to cut out a single fish from a huge group.
As a rule, smaller fish are more likely to live out their lives in schools, although some large fish will school together. Not all fish that school do so for protection in numbers. In fact, some of the fiercest fish in the world live in schools. Piranha fish live in large schools that they are born into.
What is schooling in fish?
Schooling fish are usually of the same species and the same age/size. Fish schools move with the individual members precisely spaced from each other. The schools undertake complicated manoeuvres, as though the schools have minds of their own. The intricacies of schooling are far from fully understood, especially the swimming and feeding energetics.
This of course begs the question “What are the most spectacular schooling fish?”
Herring are among the more spectacular schooling fish. They aggregate together in huge numbers. The largest schools are often formed during migrations by merging with smaller schools. “Chains” of schools one hundred kilometres (60 miles) long have been observed of mullet migrating in the Caspian Sea.