Size-dependent effects of continuous and intermittent feeding on starvation time and mass loss in starving yellow perch larvae and juveniles

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
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Abstract

Starvation rates of fish larvae living in patchy prey environments can have an important impact on cohort survival and recruitment. Despite this, little is known about how fluctuations in feeding experience influence starvation resistance and how this changes with ontogeny. Fish previously exposed to fluctuating food densities may not respond to long periods without food in the same way as fish previously exposed to a constant prey density. In a series of laboratory experiments with larvae and juveniles of yellow perch Perca flavescens, we tested the effects of continuous and intermittent feeding on times to starvation and on mass loss up to death from starvation for fish with initial total lengths of 10, 15, and 20 mm. Results indicated that proportional mass loss up to starvation was independent of fish mass, but that it did depend on feeding history. Fish that fed continuously before starvation all died after losing the same proportion of body mass (55%), but intermittent feeders died when they were slightly heavier (51–46% of body mass lost). Times to 50% mortality followed a different pattern; there was no significant difference in times to 50% mortality for fish that had fed continuously or intermittently for the same number of days before starvation. We conclude that short‐term fluctuations (≤4 d) in food availability do not appear to affect times to starvation but do influence mass loss during starvation in young yellow perch.

Suggested Citation

Letcher, B.H., Rice, J.A., Crowder, L., and Binkowski, F.P., 1996, Size-dependent effects of continuous and intermittent feeding on starvation time and mass loss in starving yellow perch larvae and juveniles: Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, v. 125, no. 1, p. 14-26, https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1996)125<0014:SDEOCA>2.3.CO;2.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Size-dependent effects of continuous and intermittent feeding on starvation time and mass loss in starving yellow perch larvae and juveniles
Series title Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
DOI 10.1577/1548-8659(1996)125<0014:SDEOCA>2.3.CO;2
Volume 125
Issue 1
Year Published 1996
Language English
Publisher American Fisheries Society
Contributing office(s) Leetown Science Center
Description 13 p.
First page 14
Last page 26
Additional publication details