We conducted feeding experiments on threadsail filefish Stephanolepis cirrhifer juveniles for 16 days to evaluate the efficacy of moon jellyfish Aurelia aurita as a prey item. Four treatments, each with 40 individuals, were prepared to compare fish growth performance. The treatments consisted of filefish that were starved (control) (S), fed only jellyfish (J), fed only krill (K), and fed both jellyfish and krill (JK). Fish in the S treatment exhibited a 50% mortality rate and reduced body weight, whereas the J treatment exhibited a zero mortality rate and increased body weight. Fish in the JK treatments showed a significantly faster growth than those in the K treatment. Filefish consumed as much as 24 and 13 times their own body weight in jellyfish per day in the J and JK treatments, respectively. This is the first report showing that growth can be sustained by feeding a marine fish only jellyfish, and indicates the potential of jellyfish as a fish prey in both nature and captivity.

Abstract:We examined feeding preference in the threadsail filefish Stephanolepis cirrhifer on jellyfish and lobworm. Juvenile filefish were fed moon jellyfish Aurelia sp. and/or lobworm Perinereis nuntia vallata for 30 min in tanks with or without sand substrate, and the onset of foraging behavior, response latency (RL) and time spent foraging (total time spent searching for food and feeding) were analyzed using video recordings and measurements of food consumption. Organic matter consumption per unit of foraging time was also estimated for each prey item. In tanks with a sand substrate, RL was significantly shorter, foraging time was significantly longer, and organic matter consumption per unit foraging time was higher for jellyfish than for lobworm; however, the opposite trend was observed in tanks without a sand substrate. Filefish in all treatments consumed an average of 99Ϯ25% of their body weight in jellyfish in 30 min. This study revealed that although filefish prefer lobworm to jellyfish when both are readily available, filefish will select jellyfish when only jellyfish are visible. These findings imply that frequent jellyfish blooms increase the feeding opportunities of filefish on jellyfish.