Butterflyfishes feed on externally brooded larvae of the blue coral, Heliopora coerulea
Butterflyfishes feed on externally brooded larvae of the blue coral, Heliopora coerulea
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蝴蝶鱼以蓝珊瑚 Heliopora coerulea 外部孵化的幼虫为食
DOI：
10.1007/s00338-009-0553-1
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发表时间：
2010
期刊：
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Alasdair Edwards
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ronald D. Villanueva;Alasdair Edwards
除了消耗珊瑚软组织外，繁殖体的捕食也是珊瑚和珊瑚礁鱼类之间重要的营养联系（Pratchett等人，2001年）。食珊瑚蝴蝶鱼主要通过其专门的摄食装置咬软组织来捕食珊瑚（Motta 1988），但两种Chaetodon spp.在大量产卵期间，观察到以浮游生物中的软珊瑚卵为食（Alino和科尔，1989年）。2009年4月，在菲律宾西北部Bolinao附近Malilnep海峡的一个珊瑚礁上，蓝太阳孔珊瑚（Heliopora coerulean）每年的育雏期间，几种蝴蝶鱼（Chaetodon melannotus，C. auriga和C. vagabundus）聚集在50-m横断面上的7个这样的菌落中的3个妊娠菌落（间隔5-10 m）周围。蝴蝶鱼正在部分群体上叮咬，幼虫在表面孵化（图1）。我们推断，这些鱼是以育雏幼虫而不是珊瑚组织为食，因为它们不咬没有幼虫的菌落的顶部，也不聚集在33个非妊娠的H。coerulea群落在样带上。聚集的10个人坚持至少30分钟。这一观察结果提出了一个新的视角如何corallivorous蝴蝶鱼可能会与他们的珊瑚猎物，是第一次报告的蝴蝶鱼。以孵卵的珊瑚幼虫为食（GR艾伦，个人通讯）。对于蝴蝶鱼，高脂肪含量（41%干重，Harii等人，2007年），蓝珊瑚幼虫可能提供一个健身优势，类似于提高幼虫质量的雀鲷，消耗珊瑚产卵（麦考密克，2003年）。对于珊瑚，这一观察结果突出了一个潜在的重要来源的幼虫死亡率和外部底栖育雏的缺点。
Aside from consumption of coral soft tissues, predation of propagules presents a significant trophic link between corals and reef fishes (Pratchett et al. 2001). Corallivorous butterflyfishes mainly prey on corals by biting soft tissues by means of their specialized feeding apparatus (Motta 1988), though two Chaetodon spp. were observed to feed on the eggs of soft corals in the plankton during mass spawning (Alino and Coll 1989). During the annual brooding of the blue coral, Heliopora coeruleain April 2009 at a reef in the Malilnep channel near Bolinao, northwestern Philippines (16 26′ 23.5 ″N; 119 56′ 43.1 ″E), several butterflyfishes (Chaetodon melannotus, C. auriga, and C. vagabundus) were observed to aggregate around three gravid colonies (5–10 m apart) among seven such colonies on a 50-m transect. The butterflyfishes were biting on parts of the colonies with larvae being brooded at the surface (Fig. 1). We infer that these fishes were feeding on the brooded larvae rather than coral tissues as they did not bite on the apical parts of the colonies without larvae and did not aggregate around 33 non-gravid H. coerulea colonies on the transect. Aggregations of up to ten individuals persisted for at least 30 min. This observation presents a new perspective on how corallivorous butterflyfishes may interact with their coral prey and is the first report of Chaetodon spp. feeding on brooded coral larvae (GR Allen, pers. comm.). For the butterflyfishes, the consumption of high lipid content (41% dry wt., Harii et al. 2007) blue coral larvae may provide a fitness advantage, similar to the enhanced larval quality in damselfish that have consumed coral spawn (McCormick 2003). For the corals, this observation highlights a potentially significant source of larval mortality and a disadvantage of external benthic brooding.