Development of chemically mediated prey-search response in postlarval lobsters (Homarus americanus) through feeding experience.

Postlarval lobsters were fed live amphipods (Gammarus oceanicus), soft clam spat (Mya arenaria), or frozen brine shrimp (Artemia salina) for five weeks in order to determine by behavioral bioassay if chemically mediated prey-search behavior is established by feeding experience. Chemosensory responses of predatorily naive lobsters to live clam and amphipod metabolites were low and erratic. After five weeks, amphipod-fed lobsters had developed strong responses towards amphipod metabolites but not clam metabolites. In contrast, clam-fed lobsters did not develop responses to either prey. Chemical fractionation of amphipod metabolites indicated that attractants were confined to the same fraction as for prey extracts, i.e., polar, low-molecular-weight compounds. Survival (80-90%) was similar for each diet group; growth was greatest for amphipod-fed lobsters (100%), followed by clam-fed lobsters (72%) and brine shrimp-fed lobsters (18%); and feeding rates increased for amphipod-fed lobsters and decreased for clam-fed lobsters. Coloration of lobsters indicated that only amphipod diet provided desirable pigments. Differences in ingestive conditioning results between clamfed and amphipod-fed lobsters may have been related to (1) clam metabolites being qualitatively or quantitatively less attractive than amphipod metabolites or (2) differences in the predisposition of lobsters to show ingestive conditioning to different prey and their associated metabolites as a function of quality of prey as a diet.