KoiBooi and vertical swimming

[luke frisbee]

What health benefit is there to the "vertical swimming" you mentioned in the "Overfeeding thread"?

if it were as implied, that koi must use more calories to swim vertically then I must offer my own personal observant..as a SCUBA diver...it takes no more energy to swim up or down than it does to swim horizontally.
The health benefit i believe koi get from swimming at variable depths is related to the compression and expansion of their air bladders,
and as a minor benefit the dorsal flexion of their bodies/spines needed to start the body towards the surface, and the ventral flexion to go downward, probably encourages better conformation and health.
( yes I envision the flexion needed to go up or down is accompanied by rotation and lateral flexion as well, but this rotation/flexion may improve their health as well.)

[MikeM]

I think it is simply a different set of muscles used in a different way, providing overall conformation benefits.

[schildkoi]

Mike and Luke,
Remind me at the CFKS (after judging) to point out a tank where the koi have been raised in a shallow, low current pond(s). There is typically at least 1 tank of examples at every show.

Steve