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Schooling Behavior and Feeding of Fish

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Abstract

Schooling makes it easier for fish to find food objects, increases the intensity of feeding and, as a result, improves food supply. The effect is achieved due to well-developed imitative behavior and stress reduction in schooling fish. Staying in a school increases the duration and frequency of feeding, expands the range of available food items, allows the development of new spatial and food resources, reduces the time spent on restoring feeding behavior after stressful loads due to a change in biotope, threat or attack by a predator, and in other cases. Forming a school makes it possible to overcome the resistance of territorial fish that protect food resources in their home areas. Higher feeding efficiency in a school equally affects both non-predatory and predatory schooling fish. However, being in a school can presumably also lead to increased intra-school food competition.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their sincere gratitude to A.A. Kazhlaev, A.S. Patseva, and L.S. Alekseeva (Moscow State University), who provided great assistance in preparing the article for publication. The authors are sincerely grateful to P.I. Kirillov (Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences) for careful and constructive editing of the text and illustrations, which improved the quality of the article.

Funding

The article was prepared within the framework of scientific projects of the state assignment of the Moscow State University No. 121032300100-5 and the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences No. 121122300056-3 in the Unified State Information System for Accounting the Results of Civil Research, Development and Technological Works.

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  1. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    A. O. Kasumyan

  2. Severtsov Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Science (IPEE RAS), Moscow, Russia

    D. S. Pavlov

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Kasumyan, A.O., Pavlov, D.S. Schooling Behavior and Feeding of Fish. J. Ichthyol. 63, 1320–1327 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S003294522307010X

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