Abstract
Adult two-spotted gobies Gobiusculus flavescens (Fabricius) distributed themselves according to the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) when 10 individuals were offered equal amounts of prey items at two sites in aquaria. As ratios between the prey supply at the two sites increased, however, increasing deviations from the IFD were observed. It is suggested that perceptual constraints within the time scale of the experiments hampered optimal foraging at increased food supply ratios. Introduction of a predator caused a pronounced deviation from the IFD. It is suggested that in the trade-off between food availability and predation risk more emphasis is put on survival than feeding. Introduction of shelter at one of the sites had little or no effect on the observed distribution of gobies when a predator was absent. In the presence of a predator, however, shelter had a pronounced effect on goby distribution. G. flavescens spent up to five times more time in the vicinity of the predator when shelter was present.
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