is there a leader in a school of fish
It would seem reasonable to think that the regular spacing and size uniformity of fish in schools would result in hydrodynamic efficiencies. However, experiments in the laboratory have failed to find any gains from the hydrodynamic lift created by the neighbours of a fish within a school, though it is still thought that efficiency gains do occur in the wild. Landa (1998) argues that the leader of a school constantly changes, because while being in the body of a school gives a hydrodynamic advantage, being the leader means you are the first to the food.
Shoaling and schooling