Lepidophagy is a specialised feeding Eating is the process of ingesting food to provide for an animal's nutritional needs, particularly for energy and growth. All animals must eat organisms in order to survive: carnivores eat other animals, herbivores eat plants, and omnivores consume a mixture of both behaviour in fish A fish is any aquatic vertebrate animal that is covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are ectothermic . Fish are abundant in most bodies of water. Fish are found in high mountain streams (e.g., char and gudgeon) and in the deepest ocean depths (e.g., gulpers and anglerfish) that involves eating of scales In most biological nomenclature, a scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of an animal's skin to provide protection. In lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) species, scales are plates on the surface of the insect wing, and provide coloration. Scales are quite common and have evolved multiple times with varying structure and function of other fish.[1] Lepidophagy is widespread, having been independently evolved in at least five freshwater families and seven marine families.[2] Lepidophagy has been reported in a range of fish including: Chanda nama (family What does and does not belong to each family is determined by a taxonomist. Similarly for the question if a particular family should be recognized at all. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing a family Ambassidae),[3] Terapon jarbua (family Terapontidae),[1] several marine catfish Catfish are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores (species that eat dead material on the bottom), and even to a tiny (family Ariidae The Ariidae or ariid catfish are catfish that mainly live in marine waters with many freshwater and brackish water species. They are found worldwide in tropical to warm temperate zones),[4] some piranha A piranha or piraña is a member of a family of omnivorous freshwater fish which live in South American rivers. In Venezuelan rivers, they are called caribes. They are known for their sharp teeth and a voracious appetite for meat, Exodon paradoxus and Roeboides species (family Characidae),[5][6][7] along with Perissodus eccentricus, Perissodus microlepis, Plecodus elaviae, Plecodus multidentatus, Plecodus paradoxus and Plecodus straeleni (family Cichlidae Cichlids are fishes from the family Cichlidae in the order Perciformes. The family Cichlidae, a major family of perciform fish, is both large and diverse. There are at least 1300 scientifically described species, making it one of the largest vertebrate families. Numerous new species are discovered annually, and many species remain undescribed. The) [8][9]
Fish scales are a surprisingly nutritional food source, containing layers of keratin Keratins are a family of fibrous structural proteins; tough and insoluble, they form the hard but un-mineralized structures found in reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals. They are rivalled as biological materials in toughness only by chitin and enamel Tooth enamel is the hardest and most highly mineralized substance of the body, and with dentin, cementum, and dental pulp is one of the four major tissues which make up the tooth in vertebrates. Tooth enamel is also found in the dermal denticles of sharks. It is the normally visible dental tissue of a tooth and must be supported by underlying, as well as a dermal portion and a layer of protein-rich mucus. They are a rich source of calcium phosphate.[2] However, the energy expended to make a strike versus the amount of scales consumed per strike puts a limit on the size of the lepidophage; such fish seldom exceed 20 centimetres A centimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one hundredth of a metre, which is the current SI base unit of length. Centi is the SI prefix for a factor of 10−2. Hence a centimetre can be written as 10 × 10−3 m (engineering notation) or 1E−2 m (scientific E notation) — meaning 10 × 101 mm or 1 m/100 respectively, and most are under 12 cm.[2] There are a number of advantages to consuming scales: scales are common, covering the body of most fish species, can be regrown relatively quickly by "prey" fish, are abundant and seasonally reliable, and their removal requires specific behaviors or morphological structures.[2]
A diversity of morphologies and attack behaviors are used by lepidophagous predators. The behavioral origins of scale feeding may be different for different lineages.[2]
References
- ^ a b Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors.. "Glossary: Lepidophagy". FishBase. http://fishbase.org/Glossary/Glossary.cfm?TermEnglish=lepidophagy. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ a b c d e Janovetz, Jeff (2005). "Functional morphology of feeding in the scale-eating specialist Catoprion mento" (PDF Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout 2D document that includes the text, fonts,). The Journal of Experimental Biology 208: 4757–4768. doi The Digital Object Identifier System is a managed system for persistent identification of content-related entities on digital networks. These entities may be content items (digital files, physical objects, abstract works), or any related entities in a content transaction (e.g. licenses, parties, etc.). "DOI" is sometimes used to mean the:10.1242/jeb.01938. http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/208/24/4757.pdf.
- ^ Grubh AR, Winemiller KO (2002) Ontogeny of Scale Feeding in the Asian Glassfish, Chanda nama (Ambassidae) Copeia pp. 903–907. doi:10.1643/CE-02-095R1
- ^ Szelistowski WA (1989) Scale-Feeding in Juvenile Marine Catfishes (Pisces: Ariidae) Copeia pp.517-519. doi:10.2307/1445459
- ^ Janovetz JA, Westneat MW (2007) Biomechanics of a novel feeding behavior: direct force measurements of the scale-feeding strike of Catoprion mento Journal of Experimental Biology In press.
- ^ Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors.. "Exodon paradoxus,Bucktooth tetra". FishBase. http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=5145. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ Petersen CC, Winemiller KO (1997) Ontogenic diet shifts and scale-eating in Roeboides dayi, a Neotropical characid Environmental Biology of Fishes 49:111-118. doi:10.1023/A:1007353425275
- ^ Yanagisawa Y (1984) Parental strategy of the cichlid fish Perissodus microlepis, with particular reference to intraspecific brood ‘farming out’ Environmental Biology of Fishes 12: 241-249.
- ^ Nshombo M (1991) Occasional egg-eating by the scale-eater Plecodus straeleni (Cichlidae) of Lake Tanganyika Environmental Biology of Fishes 31:207-212.
| Feeding behaviours Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffix -vore from Latin vorare, meaning 'to devour', or phagy, from Greek φαγειν, meaning 'to eat' |
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| Carnivores A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' (Latin carne meaning 'flesh' and vorare meaning 'to devour'), is an animal that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of vertebrate and/or invertebrate animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging. Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their |
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Hematophagy Hematophagy is the habit of certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words, haima "blood" and phagein "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious proteins and lipids that can be taken without enormous effort, hematophagy has evolved as a preferred form of feeding in many small animals such as worms · Insectivore Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers and make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine environments. In Queensland pastures, for example, it is normal to have a greater total weight of Scarabaeidae larvae under the surface than of the beef cattle grazing above it · Lepidophagy · Man-eater Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved tigers, leopards, lions, crocodilians, and sharks · Molluscivore A molluscivore is a carnivorous animal which eats mainly molluscs. The term durophagy is used to describe this eating behavior · Mucophagy Mucophagy is feeding on mucus of fishes or invertebrates. It may also refer to consumption of mucus or dried mucus in primates · Myrmecophagy Myrmecophagy is a feeding behavior defined by the consumption of termites and/or ants, particularly in those animal species whose diets are largely or exclusively composed of said insect types · Ophiophagy Ophiophagy is a specialized form of feeding or alimentary behavior of animals which hunt and eat snakes. There are ophiophagous mammals (such as the skunks and the mongooses), birds (such as snake eagles, the Secretary Bird, and some hawks), lizards (such as the Common collared lizard), and even other snakes, such as the Central and South American · Piscivore Some animals, like the sea lion, or alligator, are not completely piscivores, while others, like the Aquatic Genet, are strictly dependent on fish for food. The name piscivore is derived from the Latin word for fish, "piscis" · Spongivore A spongivore is an organism that feeds primarily on animals of the Phylum Porifera, commonly called sea sponges
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reproductive
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Oophagy Oophagy , literally "egg eating", is the practice of embryos feeding on eggs produced by the ovary while still inside the mother's uterus. The word oophagy is formed from the Classical Greek ᾠόν (ōion, egg) and Classical Greek φᾱγεῖν (phāgein, to eat) · Ovophagy Ovophagy is a rare though widely observed condition in the reproduction of certain animals, whereby fetuses will devour each other prior to birth. Subsequent research has shown ovophagy to be sporadic and highly uncommon among the vast majority of animal species · Paedophagy Paedophagy literally means the "consumption of children". It is a term used to describe the feeding behaviour of fish, or other animals, whose diet is partially, or primarily the eggs or larvae of other animals. The term is frequently applied to various species of cichlid fish from Lake Malawi of the genera Caprichromis, · Placentophagy Placentophagy is the act of mammals eating the placenta of their young after childbirth · Breastfeeding Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. Most mothers can breastfeed for six months or more, without the addition of infant formula or solid food · Weaning Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant, either human or animal, to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk
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Cannibalism In zoology, cannibalism is the act of one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded for more than 1500 species[citation needed] · Human cannibalism Cannibalism , also called anthropophagy, is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings · Self-cannibalism Self-cannibalism is the practice of eating oneself, also called autocannibalism, or autosarcophagy. A similar term which is applied differently is autophagy, which specifically denotes the normal process of self-degradation by cells. While almost an exclusive term for this process, autophagy nonetheless has occasionally made its way into more · Sexual cannibalism
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| Herbivores Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism consumes principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. By that definition, many fungi, some bacteria, many animals, some protists and a small number of parasitic plants can be considered herbivores. However, herbivory is generally restricted to animals eating |
Folivore In zoology, a folivore is a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves. Mature leaves contain a high proportion of hard-to-digest cellulose, relatively little energy, and often toxic compounds.. For this reason folivorous animals tend to have long digestive tracts and slow metabolisms. Many enlist the help of symbiotic bacteria to release the · Frugivore A frugivore is a fruit eater. It can be any type of herbivore, omnivore or carnivore where fruit is a preferred food type. Frugivory is a very common diet choice. For example, 20% of herbivorous mammals could be sub-classed as frugivore/herbivore if such a classification existed in science. Since frugivorous/herbivores eat a lot of fruit they are · Graminivore In zoology, a graminivore is an herbivorous animal that feeds primarily on grass (specifically "true" grasses; plants of the family Poaceae). The word is derived from Latin graminis, meaning "grass", and vorare, meaning "to eat." Graminivory is a form of grazing · Granivore Seed predation, often referred to as granivory, is a type of plant-animal interaction in which granivores feed on the seeds of plants as a main or exclusive food source (Hulme and Benkman 2002), in many cases leaving the seeds damaged and not viable. Granivores are found across many families of vertebrates and invertebrates (especially mammals, · Nectarivore In zoology, a nectarivore is an animal which eats the sugar-rich nectar produced by flowering plants. Most nectarivores are insects or birds, but there are also nectarivorous mammals, notably several species of bats in the Southwestern United States and Mexico, as well as the Australian Honey Possum , and Geckos (genus Phesulma) in Mauritius. The · Palynivore In zoology, a palynivore is an herbivorous animal which selectively eats the nutrient-rich pollen produced by angiosperms and gymnosperms. Most true palynivores are insects or mites. The category in its strictest application includes essentially all bees, and a few different kinds of wasps, as pollen is often the only solid food consumed by all · Xylophagy Xylophagy is a term used in ecology to describe the habits of an herbivorous animal whose diet consists primarily of wood. The word derives from Greek ξυλοφάγος (xulophagos) "eating wood", from ξύλον (xulon) "wood" and φαγεῖν (phagein) "to eat", an ancient Greek name for a kind of a worm-eating · Osteophagy Osteophagy is the practice whereby herbivores consume bones. This practice usually occurs place in a nutrient-deficient environment. The animals consume the bones in order to obtain such necessary elements as phosphorus and calcium
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Phagocytosis Phagocytosis [from Greek , phago- "eating", -cyte "vessel", -osis a process] is the cellular process of phagocytes and protists of engulfing solid particles by the cell membrane to form an internal phagosome. Phagocytosis is a specific form of endocytosis involving the vesicular internalization of solid particles, such as · Bacterivore Bacterivores are free-living, generally heterotrophic organisms, exclusively microscopic, which obtain energy and nutrients primarily or entirely from the consumption of bacteria. Many species of amoeba are bacterivores, as well as other types of protozoans. In common all species of bacteria will be prey. But spores of some species like · Coprophagia Coprophagia is the feasting upon feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros and φαγεῖν phagein ("to eat"). Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally feast upon feces but may do so under unusual conditions · Detritivore Detritivores, also known as detritus feeders or saprophages, are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus . By doing so, they contribute to decomposition and the nutrient cycles · Fungivore A fungivore or mycophage is any animal that primarily or solely feeds upon living members of the fungus kingdom. Fungivory is a type of predation, and is an important part of the soil food web. However, some animals that are quite strictly herbivorous, such as wombats, will consume fungi if they are available · Geophagy Geophagy is the practice of eating earthy or soil-like substances such as clay, and chalk, in order to obtain essential nutrients such as sulfur and phosphorus from the soil. This practice is widespread among animals in the wild, as well as in human societies. Human geophagy is closely related to pica, a classified eating disorder in the DSM-IV · Omnivore Omnivores (from Latin: omnes all, everything; vorare to devour) are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively. Pigs are one well-known example of an omnivore. Crows are another example of an
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Apex predator Apex predators are predators that have virtually no predators of their own, residing at the top of their food chain. Apex predator species are often at the end of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of ecosystems · Bottom feeding · Browsing · Hypercarnivore · Filter feeding · Grazing · Kleptoparasitism · Scavenging · Trophallaxis
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| Predation · Antipredator adaptation · Carnivorous plant · Carnivorous fungus · Carnivorous protist · Category:Eating behaviors |
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Categories: Ambassidae | Characidae | Ariidae | Cichlidae | Ichthyology | Zoology | Carnivory
