pretty much, but remember the teeth you see right now (marginal jaw) are only for
grasping the prey
grasping the prey
Yes,bichirs have teeth
- Thread starter beblondie
- Start date
gape limitation actually does depend on mouth opening to an extent, as well as pharyngeal gape (which is where another type of teeth used for processing prey come into play), but also dependent on the width between the cleithral bones, which are located near the pectoral girdle.
all of these factors influence what size prey a fish can take down; that's why bichirs are limited by the size of their mouths, as are gars, given they swallow their food. other fish, such as piranhas, are not as gape limited because they tear pieces of food off by biting (something the majority of North American piscivorous fishes did not evolve).--
--solomon
all of these factors influence what size prey a fish can take down; that's why bichirs are limited by the size of their mouths, as are gars, given they swallow their food. other fish, such as piranhas, are not as gape limited because they tear pieces of food off by biting (something the majority of North American piscivorous fishes did not evolve).--
--solomon
thank for ruining the rest of the story lol All my diagrams show the cleithral bones
as part of the pectoral girdle
as part of the pectoral girdle
beblondie;3041055; said:thank for ruining the rest of the story lol All my diagrams show the cleithral bones
as part of the pectoral girdle
haha, didn't mean to, but you know a picture (or diagram) is worth a thousand words (or jargon terminology), so if you have the pics i would post them up!--
--solomon
Wait, but if piranhas aren't considered to have no gape limit based on their feeding style of ripping chunks away from fish, then I wouldn't expect polypterids to be considered limited by gape either.
They have a natural head shaking behavior during feeding, that they use to manipulate prey or food which is too large to swallow whole.
I have observed my endlicheri take down a lemon fin barb which was too large to swallow, but it caught it, killed it, then ripped off pieces of flesh to eat, and so did the other polypterus in the tank.
They have a natural head shaking behavior during feeding, that they use to manipulate prey or food which is too large to swallow whole.
I have observed my endlicheri take down a lemon fin barb which was too large to swallow, but it caught it, killed it, then ripped off pieces of flesh to eat, and so did the other polypterus in the tank.
Cohazard;3041536; said:
bichirs and P's feed very differently, and are in fact differently gape-limited. bichirs are primarily swallowing predators, not biters like P's. they may occasionally take food this way, but it is not their primary mode of feeding. this is also something that one sees more in captivity (which will greatly alter feeding habits in many fishes) than in the wild.--
--solomon
PS - anne in response to your previous question, the cleithra (plural of cleithrum) make up the cleithral bones, so there's really no difference
