Feeding ofScorpaena porcus(Scorpaenidae) in intertidal rock pools in the Gulf of Cadiz (NE Atlantic)

Abstract

The present work on the feeding ecology of Scorpaena porcus according to season, sex and size, is the first study carried out in the rocky intertidal in the NE Atlantic. Previous studies were carried out with fish collected in fishing grounds from Mediterranean areas. A total of 106 fish were caught in monthly samplings from April 2008 to July 2010 in three areas of the rocky intertidal zone in the Gulf of Cadiz. The diet composition varied with season, size and sex. Shrimps were the main diet resource during all year, but other prey were also important depending on the season. As the size of fish increased, predation on smaller crustaceans decreased and consumption of larger crustaceans and fish augmented. Females and males based their diet on shrimps, while indeterminate fish fed largely on amphipods. No significant differences were found between feeding intensity and season, size and sex. Nevertheless, the PERMANOVA results showed that the number of prey is affected by the interaction between sex and size class. Our results highlight that S. porcus is a stenophagic species that shows a gradual segregation in the use of resources as it grows, which indicates there is no intraspecific competition in the rocky intertidal.

Redirection of ambient light improves predator detection in a diurnal fish

“…The scorpionfish Scorpaena porcus (family Scorpaenidae) is a cryptobenthic sit-and-wait predator (12-20 cm) from coastal marine hard substrates and seagrass in the NE Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea [24] (electronic supplementary material, figure S1). It feeds on crustaceans and small benthic fish [25]. Scorpionfish eyes possess a reflective stratum argenteum and a translucent retinal pigment epithelium both of which contribute to daytime eyeshine [12].…”

Influence of seagrass meadows on nursery and fish provisioning ecosystem services delivered by Ria Formosa, a coastal lagoon in Portugal

“…The greatest difference was for the herbivorous S. salpa, which feeds on seagrasses and algae (Goldenberg and Erzini, 2014), followed by S. porcus. As an ambush predator feeding mainly on decapod crustacea and fish (Compaire et al 2018), higher densities of S. porcus in vegetated habitat is to be expected. Juveniles of the 6 other species, all Sparidae, with higher densities and biomass in vegetated habitat, are omnivores, feeding mainly on invertebrates associated with seagrass and algae (Gonçalves and Erzini, 1998;Pita et al, 2002;Müller et al, 2020).…”

Detection of a population of Pseudosquillopsis cerisii (Roux, 1828) (Crustacea, Stomatopoda, Parasquillidae) in the northwestern Mediterranean

“…The presence of an additional species of stomatopod in the stomach of S. porcus and the absence of stomatopods in the gut contents of the remaining examined fish species captured in the same samples suggests that scorpionfishes are sound predators of stomatopods. The black scorpionfish is already known to prey on crustaceans (Rafrafi-Nouira et al, 2016;Compaire et al, 2017) but so far not on stomatopods. Other species of Pseudosquillopsis, such as P. lessoni in Pacific waters off Chile, are also known to be predated upon by perciform fish (Vargas et al, 1999).…”