Ecology of Prognathodes obliquus, a butterflyfish endemic to mesophotic ecosystems of St. Peter and St. Paul’s Archipelago

Predicting the effects of body size, temperature and diet on animal feeding rates

“…In the laboratory, all individuals were measured and dissected, had their gut removed and were fixed in 10% formaldehyde. The fullness of each gut was visually estimated and assigned to one of four proportion bins according to the amount of food: 0.25 (almost empty), 0.5 (half full), 0.75 (almost full) and 1 (full; Nunes et al., 2019). The guts were sectioned in a petri dish under a stereomicroscope, where their content was separated and identified to the lowest taxonomic category possible (Nunes et al., 2019).…”

“…The guts were sectioned in a petri dish under a stereomicroscope, where their content was separated and identified to the lowest taxonomic category possible (Nunes et al, 2019). The volume of each food item was then measured following the exact same procedure described above for the quantification of mouth volume.…”

“…We opened the mouth of each collected specimen and carefully filled them with modelling dough until they were completely full while ensuring that the dough did not invade the oesophagus. Each dough was placed between two thick coverslips and kneaded with a microscope slide to a height of 1 mm such that the number of 1 mm 2 grids occupied by the dough on the petri dish represented the mouth volume in mm 3 (Nunes et al, 2019). We measured the total length (cm) of the individuals, and then transformed length to body mass following the abovementioned length-weight relationship (Froese & Pauly, 2019).…”

“…In the laboratory, all individuals were measured and dissected, had their gut removed and were fixed in 10% formaldehyde. The fullness of each gut was visually estimated and assigned to one of four proportion bins according to the amount of food: 0.25 (almost empty), 0.5 (half full), 0.75 (almost full) and 1 (full; Nunes et al, 2019).…”

The Coral Holobiont Madracis Decactis Associates With Multiple Types of Symbiodiniaceae

“…St. Peter and St. Paul comprises the eastern most Brazilian oceanic islands and is one of the smallest and most isolated tropical oceanic islands in the world. The islets are devoid of shore and consist entirely of steep drop-offs extending to 60-150 m depth [16], with the most limited area of shallow habitat among oceanic islands (∼200m 2 ) [17]. Madracis decactis is an important contributor of reef structures in Abrolhos, while it is the dominant scleractinian in the rocky reefs of the St. Peter and St. Paul [18].…”