Net feeding in ichthyoplankton samples from the Paraná River

Abstract

This study investigated to what extent natural predation or net feeding contribute to the presence of pre-flexion fish larvae in the stomachs of more developed larvae in ichthyoplankton samples from the Paraná River. A digestion trial and two sampling experiments were conducted. First, pre-flexion larvae were offered to post-flexion larvae and prey digestion stages were analyzed hourly. Second, we evaluated the number of prey retained in the mouth and contained in the stomachs of predators from 1, 5 and 10 min samples taken with a single-standard plankton net (300-μm mesh size) and with two standard and 1600-μm mesh size nets simultaneously deployed. At time zero, most of the prey were in a fresh condition. Digested prey accounted for ∼40 of the prey after 1 h and were dominant after 6 h digestion. Stomachs of predators captured with the standard net contained significantly more fresh and bitten prey in longer- than in short-duration samples, whereas no prey were observed in samples collected with the larger mesh size net. Our results show intra-net predation in the 300-μm mesh net and imply that most prey were eaten in the net. © 2012 The Author.