Not generally. The formation of the small shoals requires a mechanism to disperse surviving fry. Even with bass I have watched that go through same changes at much larger size, intrabrood cannibalism is not the rule. Age-1 bass and larger sunfish generally knock the age-0 brood back low enough that cannibalism does not kick in withing the age-0. The artificial thing you have with breeding bass in a pond without predators is where I see the intrabrood cannibalism.
In a tank setting where size disparity is extreme you can get cannibalism. Under those conditions you typically have additional loss in value due to more than cannibalism.
If you mean predation by taken on larger prey items, then yes, that is point where I expect the fish to take on bigger stuff as well. They still have diet dominated by zooplankton that is taken as it floats past cover patches the fry associate with. I think the more dominant fry in a given group can direct more attention to foraging while subordinates have to avoid getting displaced as they forage making foraging less efficient. Spotted Bass and SMB do much the same until they split into their exclusive little territories they advertise with their tricolored tails and parr marks.
I have seen LMB do similar but only the lateral stripe is obliterated that I can see easily. LMB more likely to keep moving about in little shoals.
Last edited by Jim Wetzel; 09/21/17 04:58 PM.
