Foraging performance of two fishes, the threespine stickleback and the Cumaná guppy, under different light backgrounds

Abstract

Many vertebrates have cone photoreceptors that are most sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light termed UV cones. The ecological functions that these cones contribute to are seldom known though they are suspected of improving foraging and communication in a variety of fishes. In this study, we used several spectral backgrounds to assess the contribution of UV and violet cones, or long wavelength (L) cones, in the foraging performance of juvenile Cumaná guppy, Poecilia reticulata, or marine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Regardless of whether the light spectrum contained or not wavelengths below 450 nm (the limiting wavelength for UV cone stimulation), the foraging performance of both species was statistically the same, as judged by the mean distance and angle associated with attacks on prey (Daphnia magna). Our experiments also showed that the foraging performance of sticklebacks when only the double cones (and, almost exclusively, the L cones) were active was similar to that when all cones were functional, demonstrating that the double cone was sufficient for prey detection. This result indicates that foraging potentially relied on an achromatic channel serving prey motion detection, as the two spectral cone types that make up the double cone [maximally sensitive to middle (M) and long (L) wavelengths, respectively] form the input to the achromatic channel in cyprinid fishes and double cones are widely associated with achromatic tasks in other vertebrates including reptiles and birds. Stickleback performance was also substantially better when foraging under a 100% linearly polarized light field than when under an unpolarized light field. Together, our results suggest that in some teleost species UV cones exert visually-mediated ecological functions different from foraging, and furthermore that polarization sensitivity could improve the foraging performance of sticklebacks.