TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mohammed, Essmat
A1  - Amen, Rahma
A1  - Abdelwahab, Hoda M.
A1  - Winkelmann, Carola
T1  - Potential impacts of invasive crayfish on native
benthic fish: shelter use and agonistic behaviour
T2  - NeoBiota
N2  - Spinycheek crayfish (Faxonius limosus) and signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) are successful North American invasive crayfish species distributed throughout Europe. Both species compete with native benthic fish for shelter. In a laboratory approach, we assessed competition for shelter and antagonistic interactions between these invasive crayfish species and the native benthic fish species, stone loach (Barbatula barbatula) and bullhead (Cottus gobio). This allows for studying the potential impacts of invasive crayfish on native benthic fish. Spinycheek crayfish and signal crayfish were able to gain control of the shelter and could successfully displace both benthic fish species. For stone loach, the presence of crayfish significantly decreased their shelter use and caused several behavioural changes such as reduced activity and increased hiding behaviour outside the shelter. Although the shelter use by bullheads was not reduced, they displayed similar behavioural changes, if less intense. Invasive crayfish species showed remarkable combative interactions against both species of benthic fishes, evidenced by the high number of aggressive interactions, especially concerning stone loach. Our results highlight the pronounced dominance of invasive crayfish over benthic fish in terms of shelter competition and aggressive interactions under laboratory conditions, which consequently might promote the latter’s exposure to predation.
KW  - Antagonistic interactions
KW  - Barbatula barbatula
KW  - Cottus gobio
KW  - Faxonius limosus
KW  - invasive crayfish
Y1  - 2023
UR  - https://kola.opus.hbz-nrw.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2423
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:kob7-24230
SP  - 131
EP  - 153
ER  -