Does sympatry affect trophic resource use in congeneric tidepool fishes? A tale of two gobies Favonigobius lentiginosus and Favonigobius exquisitus.

The feeding ecology of two sympatric gobies, Favonigobius lentiginosus and Favonigobius exquisitus, which inhabit soft substrate pools was studied in Moreton Bay, Australia. Favonigobius spp. and sediment cores were collected from three locations within the bay and fish gut contents were analysed to explore potential competition and ontogenetic dietary shifts. The most abundant prey at all sites was nematodes at 6.33 ± 0.38 cm(-3) at Dunwich, 33.58 ± 0.26 cm(-3) at Manly and 6.36 ± 0.849 cm(-3) (mean ± S.E.) at Godwin Beach. Nevertheless, they were not a dominant component of the diets. Volumetric percent contribution of prey showed that copepods and decapod shrimps dominated F. lentiginosus diets at Dunwich (7.8 and 6.6%, respectively) and Godwin Beach (6.5 and 14.3%, respectively) and the diets of F. exquisitus at Manly (9.2 and 9.5%, respectively) and Godwin Beach (10.4 and 11.8%, respectively). Schoener's index of dietary overlap between the two species, when sympatric, was 0.85 indicating a high similarity. An ontogenetic shift towards larger prey items occurred as Favonigobius spp. reached larger sizes. Gut fullness indices showed significant differences between time of day (two-way ANOVA, P < 0.01) and species (two-way ANOVA, P < 0.05) but Bonferroni's multiple comparison test showed that the only significant difference was between F. lentiginosus at Dunwich and F. exquisitus at Godwin Beach at 1800 hours. Food resource competition and temporal resource partitioning did not appear to be a limiting factor between F. lentiginosus and F. exquisitus despite cohabitation in such restricted environments.

Community structure of soft sediment pool fishes in Moreton Bay, Australia.

A survey of soft sediment tide pools was conducted to assess the occupation and assemblage of fishes on three different intertidal shores in Moreton Bay, Australia, between January and December 2009. Tide-pool volume ranged from 0· 30 to 29· 75 l and varied significantly between months and sites. A total of 1364 individuals representing 15 species and nine families of fishes were observed. At Dunwich, fish assemblages were dominated by the sand goby Favonigobius lentiginosus (89%) and whiting, Sillago spp. (10%). At Manly, the gobies Favonigobius exquisitus (37%), Pseudogobius sp. (31%) and the blenny Omobranchus punctatus (19%) dominated the shores while at Godwin Beach, F. lentiginosus (15%), F. exquisitus (45%) and Sillago spp. (25%) were the most abundant species. The mean ±s.e. density of fishes ranged from 0· 29 ± 0· 13 to 5· 04 ± 1· 74 fishes l(-1) and abundance of fish correlated with pool volume. Juveniles (75%) dominated assemblages suggesting that soft sediment pools may act as nurseries. The persistent and recurrent fish assemblages found in soft sediment tide pools in Moreton Bay suggest that these shores are behaving more like a tropical than a temperate climate shore, as there was no significant difference of fish abundances between seasons.