Ecological separation by ecomorphology and swimming performance between two congeneric fish species

Abstract

The high diversity of freshwater fish species reflects a great morphological plasticity. Understanding the relationship between swimming capacity, morphology and habitat use may be important to predict the chances of finding a species at an anthropized environment. The swimming capacity and morphological aspects of two sympatric species of Characidium, and for which spatial segregation in different hydraulic habitats is known, were compared in this study. Twenty-one individuals of Characidium fasciatum Reinhardt, 1867 and 23 individuals of Characidium cf. zebra Eigenmann, 1909 were captured and used for the evaluation of the swimming capacity and ecomorphological attributes. The swimming capacity of each species was obtained by measuring critical and relative velocities. A total of 12 ecomorphological attributes correlated with habitat use and swimming characteristics were also compared. The Mann-Whitney mean test showed that the swimming capacity of C. fasciatum was greater than that of C. cf. zebra, and the standard length of the individuals explained 12.42% of the variation in their capacity to withstand water flow. Both species were morphologically distinct in the relative length of the caudal peduncle, ventral flattening index and the relative area of the pectoral fin. The relative area of the pectoral fin alone accounted for 16.71% of the differences in the ability to resist the water flow and which were not explained by body length. Our results showed that two species differed in the ecomorphological space and in their swimming capacity, supporting the hypothesis that the greater the hydrodynamism, the better a fish is able to withstand the water flow, and that this capacity is correlated with the morphological characteristics linked to the swimming activity of the fish.