Fish appear to switch communication channels according to how urgently their school is moving.
Experiments with schools of 60 rummy-nose tetras found that fish with an intact lateral-line flow-sensing system responded to accelerating neighbours with about one-third less delay than fish whose lateral line was compromised. Their schools also showed greater mutual information and a more efficient, evenly connected information-sharing network. Strikingly, the advantage disappeared during deceleration, indicating that lateral-line sensing specifically strengthens coordination during rapid collective acceleration.
https://academic.oup.com/icb/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icb/icag151/8764045
