Premium
Potential Predation by Fish and Invertebrates on Early Life History Stages of Striped Bass in the Pamunkey River, Virginia
Author(s) -
McGovern John C.,
Olney John E.
Publication year - 1988
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(1988)117<0152:ppbfai>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - notropis , ictalurus , biology , perch , bass (fish) , lepomis , predation , fishery , piscivore , larva , catfish , centrarchidae , minnow , micropterus , zoology , ecology , predator , fish <actinopterygii>
Field surveys in the Pamunkey River, Virginia, indicated that numerous fish and invertebrate predators varied in their spatiotemporal coincidence with eggs and larvae of striped bass Morone saxatilis on spawning grounds. In the laboratory, the cyclopoid copepod Acanthocyclops vernalis was observed to attack and kill striped bass larvae, In addition, juveniles or adults of satinfin shiner Notropis analostanus , spottail shiner N. hudsonius , tessellated darter Etheostoma olmstedi , white perch Morone americana , striped bass, bluegill Lepomis macrochirus , pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus , channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus , and white catfish I. catus ate yolk‐sac larvae under laboratory conditions. Consumption of larvae by spottail shiners and satinfin shiners increased with increasing prey density to a maximum observed ingestion of 150 and 81 larvae per predator per hour, respectively. At prey concentrations simulating ambient Pamunkey River conditions (20–100 larvae/m 3 ), consumption by both species ranged from 0 to 5 larvae/h, but these estimates were considered to be lower limits because prey densities were not maintained during the experiment. In contrast to these laboratory results, neither eggs nor larvae of striped bass were positively identified in guts of field‐collected fishes, although various fish species consumed many eggs of the white perch.