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. 2012;7(9):e44670.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044670. Epub 2012 Sep 6.

Handed foraging behavior in scale-eating cichlid fish: its potential role in shaping morphological asymmetry

Hyuk Je Lee  1 , Henrik Kusche, Axel Meyer
Affiliations

Handed foraging behavior in scale-eating cichlid fish: its potential role in shaping morphological asymmetry

Hyuk Je Lee et al. PLoS One. 2012.

Abstract

Scale-eating cichlid fish, Perissodus microlepis, from Lake Tanganyika display handed (lateralized) foraging behavior, where an asymmetric 'left' mouth morph preferentially feeds on the scales of the right side of its victim fish and a 'right' morph bites the scales of the left side. This species has therefore become a textbook example of the astonishing degree of ecological specialization and negative frequency-dependent selection. We investigated the strength of handedness of foraging behavior as well as its interaction with morphological mouth laterality in P. microlepis. In wild-caught adult fish we found that mouth laterality is, as expected, a strong predictor of their preferred attack orientation. Also laboratory-reared juvenile fish exhibited a strong laterality in behavioral preference to feed on scales, even at an early age, although the initial level of mouth asymmetry appeared to be small. This suggests that pronounced mouth asymmetry is not a prerequisite for handed foraging behavior in juvenile scale-eating cichlid fish and might suggest that behavioral preference to attack a particular side of the prey plays a role in facilitating morphological asymmetry of this species.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Axel Meyer is a PLoS ONE Academic Editor. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Dorsal view of right-bending (left) and left-bending (right) mouth morphs of the Lake Tanganyikan scale-eating cichlid fish, Perissodus microlepis.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Lateralized foraging behavior in adult P. microlepis.
Mouth asymmetry strongly predicts foraging preferences and foraging scores in community tanks (A and B) and pair tanks (C and D) of different laterality combinations.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Lateralized foraging behavior in juvenile P. microlepis.
Frequency distribution of behavioral foraging preference (for two- and seven-month old fish) and foraging score (for three-month old fish) shows a bimodal distribution. (A) two month; (B) three month; (C) seven month old fish. In (C), the graphical inspection of the mixture analysis (fitting two single-component normal distributions to the data) is shown, indicating that the distribution better fits to bimodality than to unimodality, despite a marginal statistical significance of one single-component normal distribution (p = 0.057).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Relationship between behavioral foraging preference and foraging score.
Lateralized foraging behavior and foraging score (e.g. number of scales eaten by the scale-eaters) are highly significantly correlated (in a sub-sample [n = 15] of the two-month old fish [y = 1.787x+0.176, R2 = 0.759, p<0.001]).
Figure 5
Figure 5. Relationship between mouth asymmetry and lateralized foraging behavior.
Mouth asymmetry (mouth bending angle) is not significantly correlated with foraging handedness in juvenile P. microlepis. (A) two month (r = 0.148; p = 0.255); (B) three month (r = −0.229; p = 0.154); (C) seven month old fish (r = 0.069; p = 0.749). Note that 11 fish were tested at two different ontogenetic stages (i.e. at three and seven months of age).
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