| Abstract: | Abstract – Social and foraging modes in fish often vary between individuals with different body sizes and between populations under different ecological conditions. We studied social and foraging behaviour of algae‐grazing fish Plecoglossus altivelis ryukyuensis (Ryukyu‐ayu) inhabiting Japanese subtropical island streams. Ryukyu‐ayu exhibited four behavioural modes: territorial, schooling, solitary and floating. Their body sizes differed among these modes. Territorial fish predominantly foraged on benthic algae, whereas schooling and solitary individuals frequently consumed drifting materials as well. Schooling fish were smaller than territorial fish, but, unlike some other algae‐grazing fish species, did not use schooling to gain access to food within territories. Territorial fish attacked smaller conspecifics but exhibited lateral display towards larger fish and schooling fish while occasionally attacking grazing gobies. Larger fish maintained larger feeding territories and occupied territories for longer periods than smaller fish did. This suggests that, in Ryukyu‐ayu, intra‐ and interspecific food competitions and relative body size can influence diverse behavioural modes and duration of territory occupation. We also found that Ryukyu‐ayu foraged more often and had larger feeding territories than ayu P. a. altivelis inhabiting temperate streams. We conclude that foraging strategies of Ryukyu‐ayu may have adapted to subtropical island streams, where algal productivity is much lower than that in temperate regions. |
