Similarities in feeding behaviour between some marine and freshwater fishes in two tropical communities

Abstract

The feeding behaviour and diets otfishes in two tropical habitats, a marine reef and a freshwater pond, were studied comparatively in Brazil. Similarities were found in the tactics employed to obtain food, the social patterns during foraging, and the general diet, notwithstanding lowerlevel taxonomic differences between the food items. The feeding behaviours of about one-third of the fish fauna from each community were approximately equivalent. The feeding categories of these fishes are briefly described. The similarities in the feeding modes probably reflect structural and functional properties shared by the two communities. Additional behavioural similarities of fishes in both habitats are presented and the lack of some particular foraging modes in each community is noted. The picture emerged that different, unrelated fish assemblages have the ability to evolve towards a similar behavioural and structural organization in response to comparable situations and constraints. The value of underwater observations and naturalistic studies on tropical freshwater fish assemblages is indicated.

Following food clouds: feeding association between a minute loricariid and a characidiin species in an Atlantic Forest stream, Southeastern Brazil

“…1). At this position, the darter adopted a sit-andwait foraging tactic (sensu Sazima, 1986) and fed on particles suspended by the grazing activity of the catfish (Fig. 2).…”

“…); however, no feeding associations involving this species was yet observed in rio do Ouro. Sazima (1986) registered another callichthyid species, Corydoras polystictus, being followed by Astyanax bimaculatus during its foraging activity in a Pantanal pond. It is possible that differences in microhabitat preferences by Characidium sp.…”

“…This interspecific interaction is characterized by the presence of a nuclear species that promote some kind of disturbance on the bottom while foraging, and a follower species that feeds on items exposed or flushed out by the former (Fricke, 1975;Sazima, 1986;Strand, 1988).…”

“…In the Neotropics, Sazima (1986) recorded Astyanax bimaculatus (Characidae) as a follower species that feeds on insects, crustaceans, plant debris and algae flushed out by the foraging activity of Corydoras polystictus (Callichthyidae) in a freshwater pond in the Brazilian Pantanal. Sabino & Sazima (1999) reported a remarkable case of monkeys (Cebus apella) followed by schools of the characid fish Brycon microlepis (= hilarii), that readily took the fruits dropped in the water by the monkey's destructive foraging in the riparian forest at Bonito region, Paraguay River drainage.…”

Courtship behavior and spawning of the hairy blenny Labrisomus nuchipinnis (Labrisomidae) in southeastern Brazil

“…obs. ), from Florida (USA) to Santa Catarina, southern Brazil (Gibson, 1969;Sazima, 1986;Humann, 1994). Adult males are territorial and conspicuous during their reproductive periods, showing a yellowish to greenish body with an intense reddish cheek and belly, while females are spotted or reticulated, with distinguished bars on the body and a ventral brown area with irregular chestnut-colored spots (Springer, 1958;Humann, 1994;Sazima et al, 2002).…”