Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 70, Issue 1, July 2005, Pages 133-144
Animal Behaviour

Twilight transitions in coral reef fish: the input of light-induced changes in foraging behaviour

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2004.10.014Get rights and content

The timing of twilight transition behaviour of diurnal reef fish is likely to be determined by the trade-off between food intake and risk of predation. However, the correspondence between fish behaviour and light-dependent feeding is poorly documented. We used flume measurements of prey detection and consumption by small reef-dwelling zooplanktivorous fish to examine the effects of light and prey flux on the fish's in situ behaviour during twilight. Feeding rates increased from nearly nil to saturation as light level increased, corresponding to about 45 min of the morning twilight. Changes in feeding rates were mostly due to light-dependent changes in reactive distance. In the reef, fish emerged from their nocturnal shelter at lower light intensities than those at which they retreated at dusk. These light intensities at which the fish emerged and retreated in the field greatly exceeded the level required to detect prey. We examined whether the approach of measuring relative ratio of mortality risk to food gained can be applied to predict the observed patterns in the twilight transition behaviour of the fish studied. We suggest that both the times of emergence and retreat and the dawn–dusk asymmetry are the result of a direct response to temporal and spatial variations in predation risk; no evidence for fine-tuned adjustments to diel fluctuations in food availability by changes in the time of emergence and retreat was found.

Section snippets

Study Sites

We carried out the field study at the coral reef in front of the H. Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) of Eilat, and at the Underwater Observatory Marine Park (hereafter ‘Observatory’), Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea (29°30′ N, 34°56′E). A detailed description of the local reef community is found in Fishelson (1971) and Benayahu & Loya (1977); the local fish community was thoroughly studied by Brokovich (2001) and Khalaf & Kochzius (2002). Briefly, the local fringing reef is dominated by stony

In Situ Fish Behaviour

At 10 m depth at MBL, the time the first D. marginatus emerged from shelter at dawn and the time the last individual retreated to shelter at dusk were highly synchronized with sunrise and sunset (Fig. 2a). Emergence occurred around sunrise (±4 min), while the time of retreat always occurred 2–10 min before sunset. That is, emergence at dawn occurred under significantly lower light intensity than the retreat at dusk (t test: t37 = −7.046, P < 0.001; Fig. 2b). Neither current speed nor relative

Discussion

The transition behaviour in the site-attached reef-dwelling planktivorous fish we studied was asymmetric with regard to light intensity. The emergence at dawn occurred at lower light levels than the retreat at dusk, equivalent to a difference of 6–10 min. Fish in the reef mesocosms had a longer feeding time than in situ, as they emerged from, and retreated to, their shelter at lower light levels. Our manipulation experiment indicated that the time of retreat at dusk was directly controlled by

Acknowledgments

We thank Moty Ohevia for fabricating the illumination sources used both in the flume and at the Observatory, designing video cameras, helping with the video recordings and extensive technical help during the study; R. Holzman and M. Kiflawi for productive discussions, ideas, and comments on the manuscript; and O. Ben-Tzvi, D. Cohencius, S. Eckstein, B. Farstey, R. Goldshmid, R. Kent, S. Sabah, R. Yahel and G. Yahel for invaluable help with observations on fish behaviour at the Observatory. This

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