Fish schooling behavior

Schooling is a form of group behavior in fishes, in which individuals move in the same direction, at a similar speed, with synchrony and some consistency in the spatial separation among individuals. It is critical for foraging and predator avoidance in many fish species and interacts with numerous physiological traits and environmental factors. This article describes links among schooling behavior and swimming performance, energy balance, stress physiology, and sensory systems, and the ecological relevance of these effects. While schooling behavior is widespread across fish species and is influenced by numerous environmental variables including temperature and hypoxia, there is a surprising dearth of knowledge regarding how various forms of anthropogenic change are affecting schooling behavior and especially via effects on individual physiology.