Abstract
Although many fish species are known to feed on jellyfish, only a few quantitative studies on this subject have been conducted in the field or laboratory. We combined field observations and feeding experiments to quantitatively evaluate the potential feeding capability of the black scraper Thamnaconus modestus on giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai in a jellyfish-abundant area. Underwater observations revealed that shoals of T. modestus fed voraciously on jellyfish when the jellyfish were close to the fish’s seaweed habitat. Gut contents of field-collected T. modestus almost exclusively consisted of jellyfish. In tank trials, feeding activity of black scraper was high when light intensity was between about 1.1 lx and 50 × 103 lx. The estimated feeding speed of T. modestus on the jellyfish in the Sea of Japan when the jellyfish bloom occurred was 10.0 ± 2.0 times fish body weight per day. The results support the prediction that T. modestus and probably other coastal medusivorous fishes have a substantial capability to eliminate jellyfish blooms. Considering that they are highly dependent on seaweed bed, protection of such habitats for these medusivores may be the most cost-efficient control method for jellyfish blooms.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the STOPJELLY Project administered by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC). We are grateful to T. Yokota for providing unpublished data on the light intensity of Kanmuri Island, and M. Taga and two anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments on early versions of the manuscript. The experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of Regulation on Animal Experimentation at Kyoto University.
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Miyajima-Taga, Y., Masuda, R. & Yamashita, Y. Feeding capability of black scraper Thamnaconus modestus on giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai evaluated through field observations and tank experiments. Environ Biol Fish 100, 1237–1249 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-017-0639-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-017-0639-5