Taste Preferences of Cyprinid Fishes (Cyprinidae). A Comparative Study

Abstract

Palatability of various substances (amino acids, carboxylic acids, some organic acids, and basic taste substances) is presented for eight species of cyprinids (Cyprinidae): bream Abramis brama, European bitterling Rhodeus sericeus amarus, sunbleak Leucaspius delineatus, crucian carp Carassius carassius, common bleak Alburnus alburnus, dace Leuciscus leuciscus, chub L. cephalus, and tiger barb Puntigrus tetrazona. The taste sensitivity to certain substances has been estimated for these species. A comparative analysis has been performed considering the published data on other species of the family; as a result, a high specificity of the taste spectra of cyprinids is obtained. No obvious relationship of taste preferences with the fish lifestyle, their diet, and phylogenetic similarity has been revealed. All cyprinids keep food objects in their oral cavity the longer, the most is the food object palatability. The number of orosensory testing events performed with a food object differs in fish of different lifestyles and belonging to different trophic categories, but does not correlate with the taste properties of the food object. During orosensory testing, the first retention of the grasped object in the oral cavity is longer than subsequent ones. Retentions are many times longer if the object is finally swallowed than when the fish refuse to consume. The great similarity of behavior in cyprinids during orosensory testing of food indicates the conservatism of the feeding behavior compared to taste reception.