Pelagic occurrence and diet of invasive round goby Neogobius melanostomus (Actinopterygii, Gobiidae) juveniles in deep well-mixed European reservoirs

Round goby is generally accepted to be a typical benthic dwelling fish species both in its native and invasive ranges. Nevertheless, mid-water night trawling in the Biesbosch reservoirs (The Netherlands) identified pelagic occurrence of invasive round goby juveniles, which is the first observation o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Hydrobiologia 2016-03, Vol.768 (1), p.197-209
Main Authors: Jůza, Tomáš, Zemanová, Jana, Tušer, Michal, Sajdlová, Zuzana, Baran, Roman, Vašek, Mojmír, Ricard, Daniel, Blabolil, Petr, Wagenvoort, Arco J, Ketelaars, Henk A. M, Kubečka, Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Actinopterygii
Animal populations
Aquatic resources
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Diet
Ecology
Fish
Fishes
Food chains
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Gobiidae
habitats
Indigenous species
Invasive fish
Invasive species
juveniles
lentic systems
Life Sciences
Neogobius melanostomus
Nonnative species
Primary Research Paper
Reservoirs
Surface water
Trawling
Zoology
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Summary:Round goby is generally accepted to be a typical benthic dwelling fish species both in its native and invasive ranges. Nevertheless, mid-water night trawling in the Biesbosch reservoirs (The Netherlands) identified pelagic occurrence of invasive round goby juveniles, which is the first observation of pelagic utilization in Europe. Subsequent diet analysis revealed the presence of benthic and also pelagic zooplanktonic prey in the digestive tracts of investigated fish, which further confirmed active feeding in the pelagial. Round goby juveniles almost completely avoided the surface water layer and their maximum density always occurred below 6 m in all reservoirs. The observed size spectrum (8–58 mm standard length) included the largest pelagic round goby to ever be mentioned in the scientific literature. Our data also showed that round goby prevailed over other species soon after its invasion into the reservoirs, with native species disappearing from the fry community. This study documents the first evidence of the pelagic occurrence and feeding of round goby juveniles, and confirms the importance of pelagic habitats for early stages of this invasive species in European lentic systems.
ISSN:0018-8158
1573-5117
DOI:10.1007/s10750-015-2548-y