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Feeding of the Alien Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus (Perciformes: Gobiidae) in the Southeastern Baltic

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Abstract

The feeding of the Ponto-Caspian alien round goby Neogobius melanostomus in the coastal zone of the Baltic Sea near the Curonian Spit, in the Vistula Lagoon, and in the eastern part of Gdansk Bay has been studied. The round goby in coastal waters prefers biotopes with various shelters: boulders, large pebbles, etc. In the diet of the round goby, there is a significant proportion of fouling organisms inhabiting these objects. If fouling organisms are absent for some reason, the goby switches to other types of prey: mollusks, free-living crustaceans, insect larvae, and other groups of benthic and nektobenthic organisms. There is a connection between the food spectrum and the size of the round goby: large individuals consume larger prey. The round goby implements a food strategy which consists in the fact that all available organisms (both in size and territorially) are used for food. Such food plasticity is one of the reasons for the wide expansion of this species outside the native range.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to our Polish colleagues Ryszard Kornijyw and Aleksander Drgas (Institute of Marine Fisheries, Gdynia, Poland) for providing specimens of N. melanostomus collected in experimental boxes and to colleagues Yu.Yu. Polunina and N.S. Molchanova (Atlantic Branch of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences) for their help in identifying organisms in the food bolus of the round goby individuals.

Funding

This work was carried out within the framework of the State Assignment of the budgetary theme of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences no. 0128-2021-0012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (Atlantic Branch), Russian Academy of Sciences, 236022, Kaliningrad, Russia

    A. V. Guschin & E. E. Ezhova

  2. Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences, 152742, Borok, Yaroslavl Region, Russia

    E. A. Borovikova

Authors
  1. A. V. Guschin
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  2. E. E. Ezhova
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  3. E. A. Borovikova
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Correspondence to A. V. Guschin.

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Translated by T. Kuznetsova

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Guschin, A.V., Ezhova, E.E. & Borovikova, E.A. Feeding of the Alien Round Goby Neogobius melanostomus (Perciformes: Gobiidae) in the Southeastern Baltic. Russ J Biol Invasions 13, 32–40 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2075111722010052

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