Effects of prolonged weightlessness on the swimming pattern of fish aboard Skylab 3

Looping behavior of minnows aboard Skylab 3 is analyzed. Extensive looping patterns were observed at first look on the third day of weightlessness; thereafter, the frequency of the looping episodes diminished until complete adaptation on the twenty-first day, at which time the fish oriented themselves with their backs to the light. The swimming anomaly could be due to (1) absence of continuous bending of sense hairs to a certain extent by gravity, causing the fish to tilt forward in an attempt to increase leverage on the hairs - in the absence of all gravity, tilting is continued into looping (this hypothesis is supported by parabolic flight experiments with partial gravity, in which only tilting was seen); or (2) an attempt by the fish to create a gravitoinertial stimulus by 'centrifuging' its otoliths by looping.