2.3 Foraging challenges
We separated each species into two diet treatments that would impose different functional demands on the oral jaw. Each 40-gallon tank held 5-10 individuals of a single species that were provided either a benthic diet or pelagic diet. For benthic feeders, we mixed ground high-quality cichlid flake food and freeze dried brine shrimp into 1.5% food-grade agar to create a food “paste” that was spread onto store bought lava rocks. We allowed the rocks to dry overnight and 2 rocks were placed into each benthic tank each day. Pelagic feeders were given ground up flake food and live brine shrimp daily. Animals were given 1 week to train on each diet before the start of the experiment (Figure 1E).