Effect of temperature on swimming performance of sea bass juveniles

Abstract

At four temperatures ( T= 15, 20, 25 and 28° C) swimming performance of Dicentrarchus labrax was significantly correlated with total length (23–43 mm L T ); r 2 =0.623–0.829). The relative critical swimming speed ( RU crit = U crit L T −1 ), where U crit is the critical swimming speed, was constant throughout the L T range studied. The significant effect of temperature on the relative critical swimming speed was described binomially: RU crit =−0.0323T 2 + 1.578 T −10.588 (r 2 =1). The estimated maximum RU crit (8.69 L T s −1 ) was achieved at 24.4° C, and the 90% performance level was estimated between 19.3 and 29.6° C.