Summary: Environmental Biology of Fishes 61: 341345, 2001.
© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
The diel activity of crucian carp, Carassius carassius, in relation to
chemical cues from predators
Lars B. Petterssona,b
, Kent Anderssona
& Kristian Nilssona
Department of Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden
School of Environmental & Evolutionary Biology, Room E45, Bute Building, University of St Andrews,
St Andrews, Fife KY16 9TS, Scotland, UK
Received 4 January 2000 Accepted 9 October 2000
Key words: predator-prey, habitat choice, alarm substance, fish, uncertainty
Chemical cues from piscivorous fish and prey alarm substances often cause rapid fright responses in prey. However,
little is known of how piscivore-related chemical cues affect prey behaviour over periods longer than a few hours.
Here we have investigated how chemical cues from piscivorous northern pike, Esox lucius, affect habitat choice
and diel activity of crucian carp, Carassius carassius, over an extended period, 11 days. At the beginning of the