The influence of prey biomass on activity and consumption rates of brook trout

Abstract

The objectives of this work were (1) to assess the influence of zooplankton biomass on activity and consumption rates of young-of-the-year brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and (2) to validate an in situ enclosure approach to quantify energy allocation patterns in fish. These objectives were attained by directly estimating fish growth, consumption and activity rates on 10 occasions characterized by different levels of zooplankton biomass (0.005 to 0.100 mg dry weight 1−1). One enclosure was used to estimate growth and activity rates and five additional enclosures were used to estimate consumption rates. Among-experiment variations of activity rates (sum for five trout = 2.4 to 33.5 calories day−1) were proportionally more important than variations of consumption rates (sum for five trout = 59.5 to 112.7 calories day−1). The results support the existence of a significant positive relationship between fish activity rates and zooplankton biomass. No significant relationship was found between consumption rates and prey biomass. Final size of fish inside the enclosure was within 7.6% of the value estimated using experimentally derived activity and consumption rates. This situation, together with the stability of among-enclosure activity and feeding schedules, suggested that the experimental design was appropriate to estimate fish energy allocation patterns. Combination of our observations with those of a previously published work indicated that small variations of fish size or zooplankton biomass can cause a two-fold variation of fish activity costs.