Undulatory Swimming: How Traveling Waves Are Produced and Modulated in Sunfish (lepomis Gibbosus)

We have developed an experimental procedure in which the in situ locomotor muscles of dead fishes can be electrically stimulated to generate swimming motions. This procedure gives the experimenter control of muscle activation and the mechanical properties of the body. Using pumpkinseed sunfish, Lepomis gibbosus, we investigated the mechanics of undulatory swimming by comparing the swimming kinematics of live sunfish with the kinematics of dead sunfish made to swim using electrical stimulation. In electrically stimulated sunfish, undulatory waves can be produced by alternating left­right contractions of either all the axial muscle or just the precaudal axial muscle. As judged by changes in swimming speed, most of the locomotor power is generated precaudally and transmitted to the caudal fin by way of the skin and axial skeleton. The form of the traveling undulatory wave ­ as measured by tail-beat amplitude, propulsive wavelength and maximal caudal curvature ­ can be modulated by experimental control of the body's passive stiffness, which is a property of the skin, connective tissue and axial skeleton.