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Maintenance Food Requirements and Response to Short‐Term Food Deprivation of Walleye Larvae
Author(s) -
Johnston Thomas A.,
Mathias J. A.
Publication year - 1996
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(1996)125<0211:mfrart>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - larva , predation , copepod , stizostedion , dry weight , biology , zoology , body weight , weight loss , bioenergetics , fishery , ecology , crustacean , fish <actinopterygii> , botany , obesity , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , mitochondrion
We estimated the maintenance food requirements and examined the response to shortterm (38–64‐h) food deprivation of larval walleye Stizostedion vitreum in the laboratory. First‐feeding larvae (10.0–10.7 mm total length; 0.74–0.82 mg mean dry weight) required maintenance rations, R maint , of 7–11%·d −1 when feeding on cyclopoid copepods at 15–22°C. Estimates of R maint increased with water temperature. Based on these R maint estimates and functional response models from a previous study, we estimated that the prey (cyclopoid copepod) abundances, p maint , necessary to allow walleye larvae to attain R maint would decline from 10 to 27 prey·L −1 for larvae of less than 1 mg dry weight (<10.9 mm) to less than 2 prey·L −1 for larvae of 1.5 mg or more dry weight (> 11 .9 mm). The effects of food deprivation varied with walleye body size and water temperature. The highest rates of mortality and weight loss were observed in larvae of 1.5–3.5 mg dry weight (11.9–14.6 mm), and the rate of weight loss increased significantly with increasing temperature. Energy densities (J·mg −1 ) of walleye larvae declined with body size but were not significantly affected by food deprivation or water temperature. Mortality rates were positively related to rates of weight loss during food deprivation.