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Food Progression in Young White Perch Morone Americana (Gmelin) from Bantam Lake, Connecticut
Author(s) -
Webster Dwight A.
Publication year - 1943
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1942)72[136:fpiywp]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - perch , biology , zoology , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
On August 26 and 27, 1941, collections of young white perch, Morone americana (Gmelin), were made at 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. and at 2:30 and 4:30 a.m. when the fish had moved over shoals. The stomach and intestinal contents of 50 specimens in each collection were examined; estimates were made of the fullness of the stomachs and of the volume of the various food organisms. The position of the food was diagramatically noted. The stomachs examined from the 8:30 p.m. collection held considerable food, but those from subsequent ones held increasingly less, until the 4:30 a.m. collection, when about 95 per cent of the fish examined had empty stomachs. The most important food organisms in the 8:30 p.m. collection were Cladocera, chironomid larvae, and a certain adult of the Hymenoptera. In the following collections, the volume of Cladocera gradually decreased in the digestive tract and such forms as Hyalella, ant adults, midge pupae, and mayfly nymphs increased greatly. In the several collections there was a marked tendency for the important food organisms to occupy a similar position in the digestive tract of all fish in the same collection. A well defined progression of the main food organisms could be followed through the digestive tract from the initial collection to the last.