Frequently Asked Questions
How fast are larval fishes?
Very speedy larval fishes. All same scale (smallest 8mm, largest 27mm). See Beale page below for fish names.
Larval (baby) reef fishes can swim very fast. The average 1cm long larva swims at 20cm/sec (14 body lengths/sec).
To put these figures into perspective, if Olympic swimmers could swim as well as the larva (at 14 body lengths/sec), they could do the 100m in 3.6 seconds. The world record is about 48 seconds.
Reef-fish larvae have amazing endurance, too. The average reef-fish can swim in a laboratory tread-mill, without rest or food, for several days covering about 40km. Scaled to size, this is equivalent to a human swimming about 4000km.
Further reading
- Dr Jeff Leis' research on larval fish swimming speeds.
- Bob Beale's article from the Bulletin
