No trade-off between biting and suction performance
It is generally assumed that biting performance trades off with suction performance in fish because both feeding types may place conflicting demands on the cranial musculo-skeletal system. In this study, suction feeding performance was compared between three clariid catfish species differing considerably in their biting capacity, by measuring the velocity of a standardized prey being sucked into the buccal cavity using high-speed cineradiogaphy (see figure and video below). As all species were able to accelerate the prey to similar peak velocities, our results demonstrate the possibility for catfishes to increase bite performance considerably without compromising in suction performance. More information is found in the following article
Van Wassenbergh S., Herrel A., Adriaens, D. and Aerts P. (2007) No trade-off between biting and suction feeding performance in clariid catfishes. J. Exp. Biol. 210: 27-36. full text pdf
