Abstract
Neogobius melanostomus, the round goby, was recorded by underwater video feeding on crushed dreissenid mussels at a depth of 12 m in Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, a Laurentian Great Lake. In the video, gobies used rotational or twist feeding to tear away particles from crushed mussels. At least 43 examples of this feeding maneuver occur in the video. Up to 120 gobies m-2 were visible at a time in the video. Mean standard length of gobies appearing in the video was 37 mm. Mean standard length of fish exhibiting twist feeding was larger, 48 mm. Mean size of intact mussels in visible clusters was about 10×20 mm, a size which exceeds the gape width of the largest gobies observed in the video. Neogobius melanostomus is known to use twisting to wrest small attached mussels from the substrates which can be crushed by their pharyngeal teeth. I surmise that the behavior observed in the video is an opportunistic manifestation of this inherent behavioral adaptation to overcome gap limitation and exploit a temporary windfall of food.
Highlights
Rotational feeding, known as twist or torsional feeding, is a behavioral maneuver used by some aquatic vertebrates when food items are too large for the animal’s gape, are attached to a substrate, or are too tough to be nipped or sliced away by the feeding animal’s dentition [1]
Dreissenid mussels often form a significant portion of the diet of N. melanostomus in the Great
Laboratory feeding trials have shown that N. melanostomus of all sizes prefer smaller mussels [11]
Summary
Rotational feeding, known as twist or torsional feeding, is a behavioral maneuver used by some aquatic vertebrates when food items are too large for the animal’s gape, are attached to a substrate, or are too tough to be nipped or sliced away by the feeding animal’s dentition [1]. In this maneuver, the feeding animal grasps the food item in its jaws and rotates or twists its body in relation to the prey item to remove a food particle of a size that can be ingested. One exception is Clinocottos globiceps, a marine cottid, which has been reported to use rotational feeding to tear away anemone tentacles [1]
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