In other words, the fish were even worse at eating than expected. Their models predicted the hook-hole would slow their eating, but less than half as much as they actually observed. The researchers also used computer modeling to predict how quickly the food should get sucked up, based on parameters like the volume of the fish’s mouth and the size of the hole ripped open by a hook. No pun intended, of course.” Much to Learn about Fish “For there to be that large of a difference was definitely striking. “We were surprised with how dramatic the difference was,” says Higham.
They opened their mouths the same amount, just as quickly, and approached their food at the same distance.īut thanks to the hole ripped in their mouths, the recently-angled fish sucked up food 34 percent slower than the net-caught fish. They found that the angled fish behaved the same as the net-caught fish. The videos allowed them to measure how wide the fish opened their mouths and how quickly, how close they got to their bites of food, and how fast the food was sucked into their mouths. While watching with high-speed video cameras, they fed the fish. They brought the perch back to land to undergo tests in tanks in their lab at the Bamfield Marine Science Center. The other half they caught in a seine net to serve as a hole-less control group. Half they caught with a traditional hook-and-line. The researchers caught the perch for their experiment off Vancouver Island in Canada. This, the researchers found, is analogous to what happens to a fish after an encounter with a hook.
Or, to be slightly more gruesome, in the side of your mouth. Now imagine there’s a hole poked in the side of the straw. Imagine yourself drinking through a straw: all you’re doing is opening your mouth while keeping your lips sealed tight around the straw. These fish eat by getting close to – but not quite touching – their next bite of food. Once in place, they open their mouth extremely fast and the pressure difference pulls in a mouthful of water and food. These perch are a common target for anglers and belong to a broader group of fish (along with bass, bluegill, and other perch) known as suction feeders. The team, led by Tim Higham at UC-Riverside, focused on marine shiner perch for their study.
0 kommentar(er)
