Coupling osteological development of the feeding apparatus with feeding performance in common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, larvae: Identifying morphological constraints to feeding

Identifying bottlenecks to feeding in marine finfish larvae is becoming a dominant theme as commercially important fish stocks collapse worldwide. The transition from endogenous yolk reserves to feeding exogenously is perhaps the largest constraint to developing aquaculture technologies in closed systems. Mass mortality during early larval development is generally attributed to a lack of suitable prey during the first feeding stage, however, empirical evidence identifying a causal link between morphology and performance remains scarce. In this study, we examined the link between osteological development of the feeding apparatus and feeding performance, expressed as (1) the median number of prey consumed by larvae and (2) the median size of prey consumed by larvae, during larval development of the common snook, Centropomus undecimalis. Cluster analysis, nMDS, and SIMPER analysis allowed us to identify functional intervals of the feeding apparatus through larval development. Results revealed that first feeding larvae exhibited rudimentary skeletal elements and selected only one or two of the prey types available relative to older larvae, which included more and larger prey types in their diet. Upon complete formation of the hyoid apparatus, around 8 dph, a dietary shift to rotifers was observed suggesting that high rates of mortality observed in closed culture systems may be attributed to the absence of a suitable small, non-elusive food organism during the first feeding stage. First feeding larvae exhibit a poorly developed feeding apparatus that may constrain their ability to consume elusive prey as an initial diet. Based on the association between stage-specific characteristics of the feeding apparatus and corresponding stage-specific metrics of feeding performance established in this study, we propose a stage-specific feeding-management scheme for snook hatchery aquaculture.