Critical swimming speed diminishes with aging. (A) Critical swimming speed protocol. Individual fish were placed in a modified flume containing a narrow cross-section to increase water speed. During the first 30 min, the water speed is increased to 14 cm sec−1 to allow acclimatisation and allow transition from dart and glide to sustained swimming patterns. When the fish were unable to maintain swimming speed, the water speed of the last completed stage, with allowance for proportion of current stage, was used to calculate Ucrit. A flow meter (L min−1) was used to follow increases in water speed (cm sec−1). (B) Progressive fall in Ucrit from 6 to 21 months (one-way ANOVA). All individual data points are shown, Data are mean±s.e.m. Sample size (n) was 7, 13, 26, 6 and 3 for age groups 6, 18, 21, 24 and 36 months, respectively. ***P<0.001; ****P<0.0001; ns, not significant.
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