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<br />INTRODUCTION <br />Starvation of fishes early in life has been suggested as a <br />potential cause of signficant mortality, and thus a mayor factor <br />in reducing recruitment to adult populations. Larval fishes are <br />especially vulnerable at the time of switching from endogenous <br />yolk reserves to exogenous sources of nutrition. During this <br />period, they must encounter and capture foods of the proper size, <br />quality, and in sufficient quantity to sustain life and promote <br />growth and development. <br />Natural populations of razorback sucker, Xyrauchen texanus, <br />seemingly fail to recruit in nature. In Lake Mohave, Arizona- <br />Nevada, mean size of captured larval razorback is 10.6 mm total <br />length, stomachs are mostly empty, lake zooolankton density <br />appears low at the time of razorback hatching (Langhorst and <br />Marsh, 1986) and no recruitment to adult populations has been <br />detected despite extensive sampling (Minckley, 1983; Minckley and <br />Marsh, unpubl. data). Three laboratory experiments were thus <br />performed to investigate effects of food availability on <br />mortality and growth of larval razorback sucker. <br />METHODS <br />Experiments were performed indoors at Dexter National Fish <br />Hatchery, Dexter, New Mexico. One gallon (3.9 L) glass bars were