Effect of body colour of Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters) on predation by largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède)

Abstract. Fifty each of F₂-generation gold ( gg ), bronze ( Gg ), and black ( GG ) Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters) and either zero, four or eight largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides , (Lacepède) were stocked in 20-m² concrete tanks. After 7 days, water in all tanks was drained, and fish in each tank were censused. Largemouth bass ate 18% of the tilapia in the four-bass treatment (1 tilapia/bass/day) and 60% of the tilapia in the eight-bass treatment (1·6 tilapia/bass/day); the difference was significant (P=0–05). In the four-bass treatment there was a greater observed mean predation rate on gold than that on black or on bronze tilapia, but the difference was not significant: largemouth bass ate 25% of the gold tilapia, 16% of the bronze tilapia, and 13% of the black tilapia. In the eight-bass treatment, predation on the gold tilapia was significantly greater than that on both bronze (P=0·05) and on black (P=0·06) tilapia; predation on bronze and black tilapia was similar: largemouth bass ate 80% of the gold tilapia, 48% of the bronze tilapia, and 51% of the black tilapia. Overall average total predation (both treatments combined) on gold tilapia was significantly (P=0·06) greater than that on both bronze and on black tilapia, which did not differ: largemouth bass ate 52% of the gold tilapia, 32% of the bronze tilapia, and 32% of the black tilapia. The increased vulnerability of gold tilapia to predation was a negative pleiotropic effect of the gg genotype.