Herbivorous fishes stimulants

Maitotoxin 35 may play an important role in ciguatera caused by herbivorous fish and presents an extremely potent toxicity against mice the toxin possesses very potent cytotoxicity, ichthyotoxicity, and hemolytic activity. The various pharmacological activities of this toxin are probably due to the stimulation of calcium influx into the cells <1996CHEC-II429, 2000NPR293>. 

We believed that a comparative study with herbivorous fish would be more fruitful. With a diet very different from carnivores and restricted to plant matter, the chemosensitivities of the taste systems of these fish might be expected to be different from carnivores and perhaps more complex in their response to potential food items. Substances present in the diet of an animal may act as feeding stimulants, feeding enhancers (that is, they induce the animal to eat more than it normally would), or as feeding deterrents. The presence or absence of these compounds in the diet will determine whether a food item is eaten or rejected and, to some extent, the quantity consumed. For example, the amino acids of plant tissue would be sufficient stimulation to induce an herbivorous fish to feed, but a secondary sensitivity may operate to prevent the fish from ingesting harmful quantities of toxic plants. Sun and Fenical (1979) have presented an example of this stimulation-deterrence system. When compounds isolated from Rhipocephalus phoenix were incorporated into... 

Johnson, P. B., and Adams, M. A., 1985, Chemical feeding stimulants for the herbivorous fish, Tilapia zillii. Comp. Biochem. Physiol., in press. 

As with the herbivore Tilapia zillii, amino acids appear to play a principal role in stimulating feeding in carnivorous fish (for reviews see Carr, 1982 Mackie, 1982). However, the specific amino acids which stimulate feeding appear to be quite different for the two groups. 

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