The involvement of circulatory glucose in the energy provision of skeletal muscle and heart of swimming carp was examined. Plasma glucose concentration varied from 3 to 17 mM among individual carp, and estimates of glucose turnover rate (RT) were positively correlated with plasma glucose level in resting fish (range 1.6-6.3 mumol.min-1.kg-1) and in swimming fish (range 4.2-10.7 mumol.min-1.kg-1). Carp that were exercised at 80% of their critical swimming speed displayed a twofold higher RT at any given plasma glucose concentration. Metabolic clearance rate also doubled in swimming carp (1.0 +/- 0.1 ml.min-1.kg-1) relative to resting controls (0.5 +/- 0.1 ml.min-1.kg-1). Indexes of muscle glucose utilization (GUI), determined with 2-deoxy-D-[14C]glucose, indicated that glucose utilization in red muscle was not dependent on plasma glucose concentration; however, glucose utilization in this muscle mass was threefold higher in swimming fish than in resting control fish. On the basis of whole body aerobic scope measurements in carp, it was estimated that circulatory glucose potentially comprised 25-30% of the total fuel oxidation in the active red muscle mass. GUI in heart was positively correlated with plasma glucose concentration, and it is possible that glucose availability had considerable influence on the pattern of myocardial substrate oxidation in resting and active carp. Carp are somewhat more reliant than rainbow trout on glucose for locomotor energetics, correlating with species differences in swimming capability and with the greater capacity of omnivorous carp to tolerate dietary glucose.