Food Habits of Stunted and Non-Stunted White Perch (Morone americana)

Abstract

We studied food habits of white perch (Morone americanu) from two populations with different stable states (stunted [Branched Oak Lake, Nebraska] and nonstunted [Pawnee Lake, Nebraska]) to determine if change in food habits of white perch is likely to occur in situations where a stunted white perch population is altered to a nonstunted state and vice versa. Three approaches were used to quantitatively describe seasonal (spring = March-May, summer = June-August, autumn = September-November) diets of white perch -1) frequency of occurrence, 2) percentage of composition by volume, and 3) mean stomach fullness. White perch diets were dominated by cladocerans and dipterans in both reservoirs during all seasons. Fish egg predation was similar between reservoirs, and white perch rarely consumed fishes in either the stunted or the non-stunted population. Shifting a white perch population between stunted and non-stunted states will likely cause little or no change in food habits; fish in both states will primarily consume invertebrates.

The effect of predation on stunted and nonstunted white perch

“…Second, gizzard shad can substantially reduce plankton communities and decrease growth of other fishes (Garvey & Stein 1998). Cladocerans and dipterans were the most important prey items for white perch during 2006 and 2007 in Branched Oak Lake during spring, summer, and autumn (Gosch et al 2010). Gizzard shad may be competing with white perch for food, limiting white perch growth and thus, providing another mechanism, in conjunction with predation, promoting a stunted population of white perch.…”

White Perch in Small North Carolina Reservoirs: What Explains Variation in Population Structure?

“…Benthic invertebrates and zooplankton were identified to family and enumerated by using a dissecting microscope (zooplankton were subsampled; at least 5% of the sample volume was examined). Chironomid larvae were the most common benthic invertebrate (present in >90% of benthos samples) and are also known to be an important component of White Perch diets (Gosch 2010b;Feiner et al 2012). Therefore, we used mean densities of chironomid larvae (number/m 2 ) in data analysis as a measure of available benthic prey.…”

“…Introductions of White Perch Morone americana have been problematic for freshwater fisheries managers (Madenjian et al 2000;Gosch et al 2010b). Since the 1950s, White Perch have been intentionally and unintentionally moved from their native range (i.e., North America's Atlantic coastal estuaries and river tributaries) into freshwater lakes, inland rivers, and reservoirs of the eastern and central United States (Scott and Christie 1963;Irons et al 2002;Harris 2006).…”

“…White Perch are excellent competitors and invaders due to a variety of life history traits, including their tolerance of a wide range of environmental conditions (Stanley and Danie 1983;Johnson and Evans 1990); their role as omnivorous, opportunistic feeders (Reid 1972;Hines 1981;Schaeffer and Margraf 1987;Hurley 1992;St-Hilaire et al 2002;Couture and Watzin 2008;Gosch et al 2010b); and their reproductive flexibility, with maturation occurring as early as age 1 or as late as age 3 (Sheri and Power 1968;Bur 1986;Schaeffer and Margraf 1986;Chizinski 2007;Feiner et al 2012). Population dynamics of native and introduced White Perch have been linked to a variety of abiotic and biotic factors (Feiner et al 2012(Feiner et al , 2013, such as turbidity, dissolved solids, and specific conductivity (Hawes and Parrish 2003;North and Houde 2003) as well as predation (Ward and Neumann 1998;Margulies 1990;Vrtiska et al 2003;Gosch et al 2010a) and competition with other fish (Hawes and Parrish 2003).…”

Adaptive stocking strategies of Hybrid Striped Bass in a Nebraska reservoir impacted by White Perch

“…Hybrid Striped Bass stocking strategies have been adapted in Branched Oak reservoir following declines in relative abundance which were generally attributed to competition with overabundant invasive White Perch Morone americana. White Perch are known to overpopulate and stunt in freshwater ecosystems (Scott and Crossman 1973), and they can have negative impacts on existing fish communities by direct predation on fish eggs (Schaeffer and Margraf 1987) and larvae and competition for zooplankton and macroinvertebrates (Ballinger and Peters 1978;Hodkin 2001;Weis 2005;Couture and Watzin 2008;Gosch et al 2010). Reduced juvenile survival of another Moronidae species, White Bass, was observed in conjunction with increasing White Perch abundance in Lake Erie (Madenjian et al 2000).…”