Digestive tube of an herbivorous fish (Rhytiodus microlepis) from the Amazonian floodplain lakes: A morphological and histochemical study

Abstract

Feeding is one of the most important activities of fish (Fanta & Meyer, 1998). According to the nature of the food, the feeding activities of fish are classified into three categories: herbivores, carnivores and omnivores (Evans and Claiborne, 2006). In addition, fish are able to make choices regarding the preference of different type of food, and they may switch between feeding strategies according to the capacity of their anatomical and sensory structures (Fanta et al., 2001).A variety of feeding habits are found within fish family Anostomidae (Guisande et al., 2012), which contains 12 genera and 138 species that are widely distributed in Central and South America (Garavello & Britski, 2003). Half of these known species being found in the Amazon (Santos et al., 1996). The family includes fish popularly known as "aracus" or "piaus," which are characterised by their

Early ontogeny of the freshwater fish Rhytiodus microlepis (Characiformes, Anostomidae) from the Amazon basin

“…Additionally, active swimming during the later larval stages directly contributes to the dispersal and retention of these individuals and, consequently, to the survival rates when they encounter suitable colonization habitats and is essential for the successful recruitment of species (Faria et al, 2014; Fisher et al, 2022). Another important morphological adaptation to the environment observed in R. microlepis is the elongated, fusiform, and hydrodynamic body (Li et al, 2012; Matos et al, 2021), where multiple species coexist and exploit the same habitats (Cardoso et al, 2019).…”