Thesis subject

Optimising a protocol for measuring flatfish swimming endurance

Studying the swimming behaviour and performance of flatfish can often be difficult due to their ability to maintain stationary on a bottom surface. This has resulted in the lack of a standardised experimental protocol. Therefore, the study aims to refine our current swimming endurance protocol which will provide greater resolution of the swimming performance of sole and plaice.

Swimming endurance, which focuses on swimming speeds and the related stamina, is an important trait related to the survival of a fish. Studies investigating the swimming endurance of flatfish, have mainly been done on flounder and plaice (family: Pleuronectidae). The swimming modes employed by flatfish are generally steady cruising, swim-and-settle, and burst-and-glide. Quantifying these behaviours can often be difficult as flatfish prefer to maintain a stationary position on the substrate. To resolve this problem several studies have used various modifications to flow-tunnels in an attempt to measure ‘true’ swimming endurance values. As a result, large methodological discrepancies are present between studies.

To determine the swimming endurance of juvenile European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) and common sole (Solea solea), we have developed a novel swimming endurance protocol, created based on a set of pilot studies. This protocol, however, has room for further refinement.

In this thesis project, you will be given the freedom to optimise the existing protocol and design your own protocol that will be applied to either of the flatfish species. This will entail conducting swimming endurance trials, hands-on experience handling juvenile (~18 – 25cm) sole and plaice, operating a Lolligo® swim tunnel, capturing high-speed/real-time video, and data analysis.

Skills you will be using/learning are:

  • Constructing/ modifying experimental equipment
  • Video tracking
  • Handling of live fish
  • Thinking outside of the “published literature” box
  • Statistics

Are you interested? Please contact via ezo.thesis@wur.nl.