Life History and Foods of Gambusia affinis in Two Waterways of Southwestern Louisiana

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn L. Daniels ◽  
James D. Felley
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Gambusia Affinis

scholarly journals Personality-dependent dispersal cancelled under predation risk

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1773) ◽  
pp. 20132349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julien Cote ◽  
Sean Fogarty ◽  
Blaise Tymen ◽  
Andrew Sih ◽  
Tomas Brodin
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Personality Types ◽  
Gambusia Affinis ◽  
Life History Trait ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
Behavioural Types

Dispersal is a fundamental life-history trait for many ecological processes. Recent studies suggest that dispersers, in comparison to residents, display various phenotypic specializations increasing their dispersal inclination or success. Among them, dispersers are believed to be consistently more bold, exploratory, asocial or aggressive than residents. These links between behavioural types and dispersal should vary with the cause of dispersal. However, with the exception of one study, personality-dependent dispersal has not been studied in contrasting environments. Here, we used mosquitofish ( Gambusia affinis ) to test whether personality-dependent dispersal varies with predation risk, a factor that should induce boldness or sociability-dependent dispersal. Corroborating previous studies, we found that dispersing mosquitofish are less social than non-dispersing fish when there was no predation risk. However, personality-dependent dispersal is negated under predation risk, dispersers having similar personality types to residents. Our results suggest that adaptive dispersal decisions could commonly depend on interactions between phenotypes and ecological contexts.

An assessment of the introduced mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis holbrooki) as a predator of eggs, hatchlings and tadpoles of native and non-native anurans

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spogmai Komak ◽  
Michael R. Crossland
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Gambusia Affinis ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Aquatic Life ◽  
Life History Stages ◽  
Aquatic Fauna ◽  
Native Fishes ◽  
Natural Water Bodies

The introduced mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis holbrooki) is a pest species in Australia and has been implicated in the decline of populations of native fishes and anurans. However, few quantitative data exist regarding interactions between Gambusia and native aquatic fauna. We used replicated laboratory experiments to investigate predation by G. a. holbrooki on eggs, hatchlings and tadpoles of native (Limnodynastes ornatus) and non-native (Bufo marinus) anurans. Our aims were to determine (1) whether the susceptibility of anurans to predation by G. a. holbrooki changes during larval development, and (2) the potential for G. a. holbrooki as a predator of the introduced toad B. marinus. Gambusia were significant predators of all aquatic life-history stages of L. ornatus, but were significant predators of B. marinus only at the hatchling stage. When offered both species simultaneously, Gambusia consumed tadpoles of L. ornatus but avoided those of B. marinus. The differences between the responses of Gambusia to L. ornatus and B. marinus are probably due to differences in palatability and toxicity of eggs, hatchlings and tadpoles of these species. The results indicate that G. a. holbrooki is unlikely to significantly affect larval populations of B. marinus via predation. However, Gambusia has the potential to significantly affect larval populations of L. ornatus in natural water bodies where these species co-occur.

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