Posted: Feb 23, 2012 6:51 pm
Oh they're a diverse lot Aggie. Some are parasites (namely all the Strepsipterans, and several of the Hemipteran bugs), one or two are carnivores (Angler Fishes), the Green Spoonworm is a detritus feeder that recycles organic matter found in the sea bed, and Xylochloris maculipennis is herbivorous. In the case of the Tanganyikan fishes, I think the Ophthalmotilapia species are aufwuchs grazers, feeding on algal mats (which would account for the fact that they develop bloat in the aquarium if they're fed too much animal protein), whilst the catfish will eat just about anything remotely edible.
Oh, by the way, something else that lives in Lake Tanganyika is a fish rejoicing in the name of Malapterurus electricus, better known as the Electric Catfish. It's a seriously ugly fish as an adult, it looks as if someone's stuffed a sausage skin with shit and glued fins and a pair of beady little eyes to it. But then it doesn't have to be elegant to make a living. All it has to do is wait for something to come close enough, and then ZAP, it delivers a 350 volt electric shock. Sometimes it does this to stun things it will then swallow for food. At other times, it does this to make other fish spit out their food, which the Electric Catfish then scoffs after the other fish have beaten a hasty exit away from the electric shock. Sometimes, it just sits there, minding its own business, and finds itself being molested by otters and such like, and it delivers a shock in order to tell them to piss off. Otters usually work out pretty quickly that something packing a 350 volt punch isn't going to make a meal.
Strictly speaking, ecosystems aren't linear structures, they're interconnected webs. Each node in the web is an organism, and each node will have links to other nodes. Some of those links couple an organism to its food. Other links couple an organism to its predators. Yet other links couple an organism to parasites that make a living off it, and so on. When you set this lot down on paper, you end up with something that looks rather a lot like a drawing of a neural net. This page will explain this in more detail, along with several very nice illustrations.
Oh, by the way, something else that lives in Lake Tanganyika is a fish rejoicing in the name of Malapterurus electricus, better known as the Electric Catfish. It's a seriously ugly fish as an adult, it looks as if someone's stuffed a sausage skin with shit and glued fins and a pair of beady little eyes to it. But then it doesn't have to be elegant to make a living. All it has to do is wait for something to come close enough, and then ZAP, it delivers a 350 volt electric shock. Sometimes it does this to stun things it will then swallow for food. At other times, it does this to make other fish spit out their food, which the Electric Catfish then scoffs after the other fish have beaten a hasty exit away from the electric shock. Sometimes, it just sits there, minding its own business, and finds itself being molested by otters and such like, and it delivers a shock in order to tell them to piss off. Otters usually work out pretty quickly that something packing a 350 volt punch isn't going to make a meal.
Strictly speaking, ecosystems aren't linear structures, they're interconnected webs. Each node in the web is an organism, and each node will have links to other nodes. Some of those links couple an organism to its food. Other links couple an organism to its predators. Yet other links couple an organism to parasites that make a living off it, and so on. When you set this lot down on paper, you end up with something that looks rather a lot like a drawing of a neural net. This page will explain this in more detail, along with several very nice illustrations.