Round Goby (Neogobius melanostomus) mussel predation

Abstract

Gut analysis of a recent Great Lakes invader, the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) collected from the Cheboygan River, showed that they ate zebra and or quagga mussels (Dreissena polymorpha and Dreissena bugensis) 68% of the time. This study investigated the preference of round gobies to select for different size classes of mussels. There was a significant positive relationship found between the length of round gobies and the size of mussels selected. Although the larger round gobies sampled in this study were able to consume larger mussels, smaller mussels were still preferred. This study suggests that the preference of smaller mussels by round gobies will not alter the population of mussels due to nonselection of the largest mussels as prey and the benthic nature of the round goby.