The food preferences of three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., downstream from a dam reservoir

Submersed plants appeared in the impounded section of the Warta River as a consequence of low discharge in summer and were colonized by epiphytic fauna dominated by Hydra sp., Simuliidae, and Chironomidae. The three-spined stickleback consumed it voraciously, and their diet composition closely reflected the available food resources. In May their alimentary tracts were filled with Cladocera drifting from the reservoir, and then by the dominant taxa associated with macrophytes, especially chironomid periphyton scrapers. A comparison of dipteran head capsule width in the food resources and in the alimentary tract proved the three-spined stickleback preference for the largest larvae (optimal foraging strategy).