SUMMARY 1. We used an individual based modelling approach for roach to (i) simulate observed diel habitat shifts between the pelagic and littoral zone of a mesotrophic lake; (ii) analyse the relevance of these habitat shifts for the diet, activity costs and growth of roach; and (iii) quantify the effects of a hypothetical piscivore‐mediated (presence of pikeperch) confinement of roach to the littoral zone on roach diet, activity costs and growth. 2. The model suggests that in the presence of pikeperch, roach shifts from zooplankton as the primary diet to increased consumption of less nutritious food items such as macrophytes, filamentous algae and detritus. 3. The growth of roach between May and October was predicted to be significantly higher in the absence of pikeperch, although the net activity costs were about 60% higher compared with the scenario where pikeperch were present. 4. These modelling results provide quantitative information for interpreting diel horizontal migrations of roach as a result from a trade‐off between food availability and predation risk in different habitats of a lake. 5. Altering the habitat selection mode of planktivorous roach by piscivore stocking has the potential to reduce zooplankton consumption by fish substantially, and could therefore be used as a biomanipulation technique complementing the reduction of zooplanktivorous fish.

No abstract