Eat your predator! Small cyprinid fish forage on their natural enemy
.jpg "Eat your predator! Small cyprinid fish forage on their natural enemy")
Predator - prey relationships are often perceived simply as a situation in which a predator enhances its own fitness while reducing the fitness of its prey. However, this relationship may occasionally become reversed when the prey feeds on the juvenile predator stages.
We investigated this phenomenon in a model asp (Leuciscus aspius; predator) - bleak (Alburnus alburnus; prey) relationship. The adhesive asp eggs are available for bleak predation after a spawning event for only tens of seconds before they adhere to the stones, where bleak do not forage. Bleak utilized asp eggs in high quantities, especially in the spawning peak of the asp reproductive season. Total egg mortality observed by underwater cameras was 21.2 % on average. This study emphasizes the potential efficiency of predator egg utilization by prey, which may have further consequences in predator - prey dynamics.
Bleak foraging on asp eggs in the tributary of Želivka Reservoir, Czech Republic. Photo and video: Marek Šmejkal
More details may be found in the following publication:
Šmejkal, M., Baran, R, Blabolil, P., Vejřík, L.,Prchalová, M., Bartoň, D, Mrkvička, T., Kubečka, J. (2017). Early life-history predator-prey reversal in two cyprinid fishes. Scientific Reports 7, 6924. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-07339-w
