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Pleuronectiformes; Pseudopleuronectes americanus; Trinectes maculatus; escape behavior; fast-start; C-start; mauthner cell; jet propulsion; locomotion
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Opercular Jetting During Fast-Starts By Flatfishes, E L. Brainerd, B N. Page, Frank E. Fish
Opercular Jetting During Fast-Starts By Flatfishes, E L. Brainerd, B N. Page, Frank E. Fish
Frank E. Fish
When attacked by predators, flatfishes perform fast-starts that result in a rapid take-off from the ocean bottom on which they lie. High-speed video recordings of the blind side of flatfishes indicate that they expel a coherent jet of water from the blind-side opercular valve during take-off. Buccal pressure recordings in winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) show that a buccal pressure pulse begins 0-20 ms before the beginning of the fast-start and has a range of mean magnitudes for three individuals of 1.6-10.7 kPa. We hypothesize that one function of the opercular jet in flatfishes may be to reduce the effects of …