How do fish miss? Attack strategies of threespine stickleback capturing non-evasive prey.

Abstract

Most predators rely on capturing prey for survival, yet failure is common. Failure is often attributed to prey evasion, but predator miscalculation and/or inaccuracy may also drive an unsuccessful event. We addressed the latter using threespine stickleback as predators and bloodworms (non-evasive) as prey. High-speed videography of the entire attack allowed us to determine the strike tactics leading to successful or missed strikes. We analyzed movements and morphological traits from 57 individuals. Our results reveal that kinematics drive the strike outcome and that failed strikes primarily arise from incorrect timing of mouth opening, often beginning too far from the prey for suction to be effective. This likely stems from the lack of integration between locomotion and feeding systems. Our study begins to unravel the important link between behavior and success in fish feeding.