Effects of environmental conditions and prey size on locomotion behaviors of planktivorous fish

Abstract

The locomotion behavior of Pseudorasbora parva was observed in laboratory under various light intensity, turbidity, structural complexity and zooplankton size, focusing on swimming speed and time of search, approach, and attack. At low prey density, the satiation level affected the swimming speed only slightly. The search speed was nearly constant regardless of the satiation level to reduce the swimming energetic cost when opportunities of encountering prey were low. However, the attack and approach speeds slightly decreased with satiation. With increasing visual and swimming conditions, the approach speed increased markedly, but the search and attack speeds did not. Although the time for the approach and attack to capture a prey did not change much with decreasing swimming and visual conditions, the search time significantly increased to compensate for the decreased swimming speed.