The Bass, the Crayfish and the Organic Food Processor

Standing in a stream in June watching fish is about as close to heaven on Earth as I’ll ever get. Warmth, birdsong and gurgling water embrace me. My concerns recede, as I revel in a magical place of serenity and discovery.

One of the joys of wading streams in June is watching smallmouth bass. Exciting videos of their breeding behaviour can easily be attained with the excellent underwater capable cameras now available. 

Male smallmouth bass clear silt and other debris from gravel stream bottoms in June, creating roughly circular redds (nests) that attract females.  

Eggs are laid and fertilized and, departing from the usual standard of maternal caregiving in nature, the males guard the eggs and the fry after they hatch. The females get on with their lives.  

The video in this blog shows an interaction between a crayfish and one of the nest-guarding males. 

My GoPro camera recorded the crayfish foraging near the smallmouth bass nest while the male guardian was temporarily absent. The small, black tadpole-like creatures are bass babies. When he returned, the crayfish rolled on its back and appeared to play dead. The bass showed some desultory interest in the crustacean but then left it alone.

Soon though – the segment captured in this video clip – the bass eyed the crayfish again and the crayfish made a fatal error. It flinched, betraying that it was indeed alive, and the bass promptly swallowed it. 

The crunching in the video is the ill-fated crayfish being ground up by sharp structures lining the throat of the bass called “pharyngeal teeth.” 

I was gobsmacked as I watched the video, fascinated by the apparent death feigning by the crayfish, by the initial indifference of the bass, and by the discovery that bass use their throats as organic food processors!  

Next spring, if you’re looking for me on a sun-kissed day in June, best check a local stream.