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Protozoans—the first food of larval herring ( Clupea harengus L.)?
Author(s) -
Spittler P.,
Brenning U.,
Arlt G.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
internationale revue der gesamten hydrobiologie und hydrographie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 0020-9309
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.19900750503
Subject(s) - starch , herring , clupea , larva , biology , food science , potato starch , botany , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
In short‐run experiments herring larvae at the end of the yolk sac stage ( S L 6.5 to 8.5 m) were fed with maize and potato starch to investigate the effect of particle size on food selection. About 20% of the larvae ingested these particles during the experiments. In the case of maize starch (3 to 26 μm grain size) the size classes from 14 to 25 μm and in the case of potato starch (5 to 80 μm) the size classes larger than 29 μm were preferred. The highest numbers of ingested grains per larva were 150 maize starch grains and 57 potato starch grains. The selective uptake of these size classes leads to the conclusion that planktonic organisms in this size range—in other words mostly protozoans—may play an important role as a first food source of herring larvae.