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Hydrodynamics of suction feeding of fish in motion
Author(s) -
Weihs D.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
journal of fish biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1095-8649
pISSN - 0022-1112
DOI - 10.1111/j.1095-8649.1980.tb03720.x
Subject(s) - suction , micropterus , bass (fish) , biology , mechanics , predation , anatomy , fishery , physics , ecology , meteorology
Forward motion was shown to increase the efficiency of suction feeding by causing the ingested volume to be predominantly in front of the fish, instead of being a sphere centred on the fish mouth. This increases the distance from which a prey, located in front of the predator, can be ingested by suction. A general hydrodynamic model of the external effects of the suction process is presented, showing that this is dependent upon a single non‐dimensional parameter, the ratio of a characteristic mouth dimension, divided by the forward swimming speed and the suction time. Data for large‐mouth bass, Micropterus salmoides show that the observed average forward velocity while feeding, of 3.1 body length/s, serves to increase the ingestion range by more than 60% over suction while not moving.