Energy Partitioning in Largemouth Bass under Conditions of Seasonally Fluctuating Prey Availability

Abstract

Allocation of consumed energy by largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides into their major physiological processes was determined to investigate mechanisms by which these predators maintain condition (overall health) in a system with a seasonally fluctuating prey base. Consumed energy is partitioned into growth, energy storage, and gonads according to temporal prey availability, metabolic demands, and reproductive needs. Throughout minimum‐feeding periods in the winter and early spring, largemouth bass utilize energy from visceral fat and body protein for standard metabolic demands and gonad development. Catabolism of energy from body tissue during the winter was less than 33% of standard metabolic demands, indicating that some consumption had to occur during the winter. The calculated activity metabolism of largemouth bass ranged from 18 to 144% of standard metabolism depending on time of year and sex. Parallel trends of activity metabolism and consumption over the year suggest that foraging costs may constitute a large fraction of activity metabolism. To maintain condition in a system where their primary prey undergoes large fluctuations in seasonal abundance, largemouth bass maximize caloric growth in the fall, store visceral fat, minimize standard and active metabolic demands, and undertake some winter feeding in warm thermal areas.

Fish condition in introduced tilapias of Ugandan crater lakes in relation to deforestation and fishing pressure

“…Two types of condition indices are generally used by fisheries scientists as surrogates of fish health and growth (Wootton 1990;Pauly 1993;Petrakis and Stergiou 1995;Binohlan and Pauly 1998). The first are somatic indices such as calorific and proximate (e.g., lipid content) indices (Brown and Murphy 1991), and liver-, fat-, and gonado-somatic indices (Adams et al 1982). The second group are length-weight based indices such as Fulton's condition factor (Le Cren 1951;Ricker 1975), relative condition factor (Le Cren 1951), and relative weight (Wege and Anderson 1978).…”

The Effects of Temperature on the Feeding Performance of Invasive Fishes

“…For example, the velocity of fin propulsion during swimming and mouth-opening during feeding, behaviors fueled by skeletal-muscle contraction and relaxation, are expected to double when ambient temperature is increased by 10°C.This is because at the physiological level of analysis, there is a twofold increase in the rate of muscular contraction and relaxation for every 10°C increase in temperature [18][19][20][21][22][23]. At the ecological level of analysis, the food habit of some temperate fishes, such as largemouth bass, Micropterussalmoides, and pumpkinseed sunfish, Lepomisgibbosus, change seasonally, consistent with the seasonal cooling and warming of lakes or rivers in temperate ecosystems [64][65][66].…”

Body condition and energy density of juvenile streaked prochilod Prochilodus lineatus (Valenciennes, 1837) in a Neotropical floodplain

“…Therefore, condition factor and the energy density of fish have been used as indicators of their physiological status (Dourado & Benedito-Cecilio, 2005;Monteiro et al, 2007). The energy density allows the determination of whether consumed energy is allocated for growth, metabolic demands, waste loss and reproductive needs (Adams et al, 1982;Cui & Wootton, 1988;Adams & Breck, 1990). The condition factor quantifies the welfare of the fish, which can be indirectly related to stores of lipids and energy and allows a comparison of the condition of different specimens from the same sample, independent of length (Le Cren, 1951;Herbinger & Friars, 1991;Santos et al, 2004;Froese, 2006).…”