In the presence of food odor, the duration of taste testing for the most types of food granules as well as the number of repeated graspings of granules with an attractive taste (L-proline, 0,1 M) do not change in carp, Cyprinus carpio, and cod, Gadus morhua (Kasumyan et al., 2009). At the same time, food granules with indifferent or repulsive gustatory taste (L-lysine, 0,1 M) are rejected and repeatedly grasped by fish more frequently on the background of food odor than in water without odor.

Such behaviour manifested by fish in the presence of food odor in response to granules with unattractive gustatory properties is apparently caused by the contradiction between the information coming via different chemosensory canals, olfactory and gustatory. According to Kasumyan et al. (2009), obtained results indicate that food stimulation caused by food odor in the nature can lead to increasing the actual consumption of only those accessible food items that have an attractive taste for fish.

Basic References

Kasumyan A.O., Marusov E.A., Sidorov S.S. 2009. The effect of food odor background on gustatory preferences and gustatory behavior of carp Cyprinus carpio and cod Gadus morhua. Journal of Ichthyology 49, 469-481