Research Paper On Wood Eating Catfish

So, just to summarize what I think these fish are doing… the wood-eating catfishes dig into decaying wood and efficiently digest wood degradation products that environmental microbes are making available as they degrade wood. The fish also have elevated digestive enzyme activities (e.g., N-acetyl-b-D-glucosaminidase) suggestive that they digest fungi within the wood matrix. Thus, they likely get “energy” from the degraded wood. The stable isotopic signatures (carbon and nitrogen) of wild-caught wood-eating catfishes certainly suggest that they get their protein from fungi and amorphous detritus, and we find periphyton and amorphous detritus in their guts (in addition to the wood; see the “inside the guts” paper where I do a detailed gut content analysis of wild-caught fish). Basically, the fish have to get their nitrogen from somewhere other than the wood detritus (there isn’t much N in wood anyway). The fish certainly ingest wood, they just don’t use the same “pathway” to obtain energy from it as a termite. Rather than harbouring an endosymbiotic community, they let the microbes in the environment do the work for them. This may be a function of living in an aquatic environment."

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Pirarucu said:

Thanks Darrel for the link too (Do wood-grazing fishes partition their niche) i really enjoy reading Donovan's research and how he walks you thru them, it's a bit like he's saying jump in my car and enjoy the ride. I keep Panaques and Pterygoplichthys species and Hypostomus, i would never deprive them of wood, i think it be un-natural for these fish and when i see my sailfins lying on a dark piece of wood it just looks like they belong together and very natural. Anyways, thanks for the links and your view on this topic...Cheers. :thumbup:

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