Laserfiche WebLink
10 <br />behavior between the two species could be one of the other reasons why even <br />despined catfish were taken less frequently than trout. A final possibility <br />relates to the second component of Ivlev's definition of prey vulnerability-- <br />predator preference. Colorado squawfish may innately prefer other species <br />over channel catfish, or they may have been conditioned to trout through <br />years of feeding on them. There have been no studies on conditioning with <br />squawfish; however, Mauck and Coble (1971) found prior conditioning had no <br />effect on northern pike preference. In predator preference studies that in- <br />volved ictalurids (Beyerle and Williams, 1968; Mauck and Coble, 1971), cat- <br />fish were always the least preferred species but were still consumed to some <br />degree. In our observations, it appeared that Colorado squawfish were just <br />not interested in catfish as prey. Squawfish could be fed trout daily and <br />would consume them immediately, yet they had to be starved for 5 days before <br />they would even attempt to eat catfish. Perhaps the schooling behavior and <br />bottom orientation of channel catfish made them uninteresting to squawfish. <br />Nothing is known about how squawfish "hunt" their prey, but using Greenway's <br />`1965) method of classifying predators by body type and mouth structure, <br />Moyle (1976) classified Colorado squawfish as roving predators with lie-in- <br />wait affinities. Thus, a single fish close to the surface may seem more <br />attractive to a squawfish than a tightly schooled group of fish on the bot- <br />tom. <br />Only 8 attempts (6 observed, 2 unobserved but fish were eaten) were <br />documented of squawfish eating CCSP. These squawfish were not injured in <br />the attempts and the catfish were not lodged in the throat. Reist (1980) <br />has shown that the size ratio between predator and prey is important in de- <br />termining the effectiveness of spines in preventing predation. The Colorado <br />squawfish reported by McAda (1983) was 550 mm long and the catfish was 120