Saunders A J, Montgomery J C
Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1985 Apr 22;224(1235):209-21. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1985.0030.
Piper school in large groups close to the water surface during daylight hours, whereas at night the schools break up and individual fish can be observed swimming slowly through the water. Analysis of gut contents indicates that during the day piper feed primarily on copepods, and terrestrial insects trapped on the water surface; after dark the demersal zooplankton which enter the water column form the major dietary component. Prey selectivity is evident in that certain groups present in the plankton are not found in the stomach contents of piper, and that the size of prey taken is biased towards the larger size classes of plankton. Laboratory experiments establish that piper are capable of locating prey in total darkness, and that under these conditions live prey are consumed in a higher proportion, and much more quickly than dead prey. These results strengthen the hypothesis that piper use their anterior lateral line to feed on zooplankton at night.
白天，笛鲷成群结队地靠近水面游动，而到了夜晚，鱼群散开，可以观察到个体缓慢地在水中游动。对肠道内容物的分析表明，白天笛鲷主要以桡足类动物以及困在水面的陆生昆虫为食；天黑后，进入水柱的底栖浮游动物成为主要食物成分。猎物选择性很明显，因为浮游生物中存在的某些群体在笛鲷的胃内容物中并未发现，而且所捕食猎物的大小偏向于较大尺寸类别的浮游生物。实验室实验表明，笛鲷能够在完全黑暗的环境中定位猎物，并且在这些条件下，活猎物的被消耗比例更高，而且比死猎物消耗得更快。这些结果强化了这样一种假设，即笛鲷在夜间利用其前侧线捕食浮游动物。
