Abstract

Feeding ecology studies have provided valuable insight into the impacts of lionfish on the native reef fish communi-ties of the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. The lionfish are known to consume over 70 fish species, but their relative abundance as lionfish prey is strongly site specific. However, the majority of these studies have been based on mor-phological identification, usually of partially digested specimens. Morphological identification can be biased and prone to human error, depending on the digestive level of the prey item. Additionally, lionfish feed during crepuscular hours, while many lionfish collections occur at opportune times for researchers and scientists, which usually do not corre-late with feeding. The aforementioned points support the need for quantifying digestion rates for more accurate feeding ecology studies or for understanding existing biases. This study analyzed the digestion rate of known teleost prey items in lionfish stomachs, over a given period of time, to provide an estimate of digestion rate at basal metabolism. Three size classes of lionfish were examined, utilizing ten or more individuals per size class. Time intervals of 30 minutes to an hour were used to identify digestion rate. Approximately 5+ hours are required before a known fish prey item is deemed unrecognizable to the species level. Additionally, this rate is likely dependent on lionfish size and prey size. Faster diges-tion rates are predicted for more active lionfish. Studies utilizing morphological identification should structure their exper-imental design to incorporate this information to obtain a higher percentage of undigested prey items for analysis.

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